The Champions of Chaos Book Three: The Affliction
by wubbwubb
Summary: Since the end of their third year, the growing champions have begun to slowly spread their influence into the muggle world. But as they begin another year, the affliction that is their foe has spread further than they realised as another is added to their circle and with the acceptance of their destiny, they shall meet a foe far deadlier than they had ever known before.
1. Chapter 1

**_Previously on The Champions of Chaos_**

"Just a few more days Harry, a few more days till we meet again and find out the truth of your situation but whatever your situation is for now just hold on my brother," Hermione said in a hopeful tone.

* * *

 ** _'Unleash your power; show them the error of demanding something from a sorcerer that is above their petty whims'_**

 _'No, I promised myself I wouldn't use it,'_ even though Tzeentch had tempted Harry, he would not use it because of the promise he made to himself.

* * *

Harry watched as she walked away with shock and horror flowing through his veins and what felt like a tonne of lead dropping into his stomach.

 _'No...no no NO! How! How does she know? HOW!'_ screamed Harry in his mind as he constantly tried and tried to think of reason on how and why she knew that he had access to the accursed warp.

* * *

"You want to know why I am friends with Luna? I am friends with her because she is friendly, nice and caring; she has an amazing sense of humour compared to yours and I would rather spend my time with someone who believes in _magical_ creatures than be friends with a pack of bullies!" Harry shouted the last part as a slight wind had started to pick up in the room behind him.

* * *

 ** _'This is how weak you are when you refuse your gifts, show that you are above them'_**

What shocked Harry was that he felt a part of himself want to show them the strength of the power he had but the memory of the promise and his friends pushed that part of him out of the picture and he refused, yet again.

* * *

When Madam Pomfrey heard the cry of anguish, she raced out of her office to see Harry on his knees in front of the two beds that held his friend.

Madam Pomfrey slowly walked over to the kneeling Harry, kneeled down next to him and slowly wrapped her arms around him, holding him as he shed tears for his petrified friend.

* * *

"Then merlin help us if he goes along with his own plan. With his magic it will be _very_ hard to stop him from his goal" Flitwick and McGonagall started to walk away, leaving Harry to see what the original point of their conversation was about.

When Harry turned the corner and looked at what the Professors were talking about, his thoughts stopped dead.

 _'Their skeletons shall lie in the chamber forever'_

* * *

When Harry and Neville landed on a pile of animal bones, they knew that had reached the end of the slope and into the area before the chamber itself.

"You first" Harry poked his wand into Lockharts back, forcing him to more forward over the bones.

* * *

"Well Harry, as **you** should know, history has shown that in times of need, alliances can be made to further like-minded goals, so how about it Harry, shall we grow our friendship into an alliance between the Architect of Fate and the Prince of Pleasure?" Hermione asked with a smirk.

"Let us unite in an alliance and sow the seeds of the dark gods my sister" Harry shook Hermione's hand in an official way as her pink eyes sparkled in excitable delight.

* * *

 ** _SIRIUS BLACK ESCAPES AZKABAN!_**

 ** _BLACK STILL AT LARGE!_**

* * *

"I really do think that your new eyes suit you Harry, makes your status as a champion more substantial and make you a bit more intimidating to your enemies" Harry froze when he heard Luna speak her statement.

"Why do you know about that Luna? More importantly how?" Harry walked up into her personal space with his, as she said, intimidating glowing blue eyes.

"I see things that shouldn't be possible and I know things that are impossible," Luna said in a small voice with her head slightly bowed.

* * *

"What's going to happen if you and Black do meet?" Hermione asked.

Harry did not respond instantly but only marked his page, closed his book and rose his head to look at Hermione.

"What will happen? I will make him answer for what he has done to myself and my family, I will make him pay for destroying my life and I will make sure that he doesn't escape justice" Harry said in a cold yet calm manner.

* * *

Hermione waited for several seconds before becoming bored and just before she cried out the spell, the boggart stopped its shifting and settled on a form.

Not one student bar a few knew what the creature standing in front of Hermione was and what those who knew saw, they did not like, not one bit.

* * *

"You know what you saw in there Harry, I will **NOT** become one of them!"

* * *

"May I present our new training area and our place of secrecy Hermione: The Chamber of Secrets"

With a whisper of parseltongue, Harry and Hermione stood still as they watched the sinks part and reveal the dark tunnel that led into the darkness below that held the chamber.

* * *

After they placed the icons upon the dark altar, the air surrounding them grew thick with warp energies as a laugh that promised power combined with a laugh that promised pleasures ending erupted throughout the chamber, originating at the unholy icons.

 ** _"At last champions, you have created the very first corrupted temple of the dark gods!"_** the sensual voice of Slaanesh rang out.

 ** _"With this newly created space, you can train your abilities in secret and grow to fulfil your roles!"_** the voice of Tzeentch agreed with the Prince of Pleasure.

* * *

"We must find additional protection for young Harry then, the wards surround his home were based on the love from Lily's sacrifice and the blood that Harry and his aunt shared, but now as Harry has rescinded his kinship with her, he needs another domicile for him" Albus said with a thoughtful look out of the window.

* * *

 ** _"Something for the future boy"_**

A feeling of pain and wriggling brought Harry back to the present and when Harry undid his cloak and shirt, he saw a dark blue eye, similar to a cat's eye but it certainly had the familiar feeling of the warp in it in the middle of his chest.

* * *

"Now, will someone please tell me what has got you all in such a state that needed my attention at 12 o'clock in the morning?" McGonagall said as she looked over the crowd, waiting for her answer.

"I-i-it w-w-was S-s-sirius B-l-lack Professor, he was standing right above me with a knife," Ron said with a slight stutter.

* * *

As the headmaster finished, the students began to arrange their sleeping bags according to their houses but with several groups of friends sticking together.

While the students were arranging themselves, Harry looked around the room, caught the eyes of Daphne, Lavender and Padma, and gave them reassuring nods as they looked at him with hidden concern.

* * *

"Well, well, well, it seems like today is full of surprises isn't it my dear Luna?" Harry smirked as his ice blue eyes stared into hers.

"It would seem so Harry" Luna smiled back at him, with her equally ice blue eyes staring back into his.

* * *

"What exactly is my position in the group Great Architect?" Luna's voice was but a whisper under all the noise from the duel but to Tzeentch it were as if they were the only beings in the room.

 ** _"Your role my dear mortal? In the future, your role will be my champion's confidant and with your new gift, you could say that you will be his….oracle"_**

* * *

 ** _"You have been training hard my champion; the events that you have been training for are close at hand, it has been decided my Slaanesh and I that you must return to the surface and prepare, go now,"_** Tzeentch commanded as Harry and Hermione regained their breath.

"The traitors shall receive what is due to them and then some," Harry said with venom entering his voice.

* * *

 ** _"You have been training hard my champion; the events that you have been training for are close at hand, it has been decided by Slaanesh and I that you must return to the surface and prepare, go now,"_** Tzeentch commanded as Harry and Hermione regained their breath.

"The traitors shall receive what is due to them and then some," Harry said with venom entering his voice.

* * *

"Don't worry traitor, you and Black will be find death soon enough, Black for betraying my parents and you for helping him"

What they did not see was Lupin freezing mid step on the stairs to his office with his face paling rapidly as if he had just been touched by death, slowly turned his head towards the retreating pair and started to shake slightly from hearing such hatred and venom from Harry.

* * *

"I saw Professor Lupin talking to Sirius Black, I felt vengeance, pain but also confusion, I also heard a name; the rat"

Harry looked at Hermione with a confused look on his faced but he saw the same look of confusion on Hermione's as well.

* * *

Harry crept out of his dorm and down the stairs silently, out of the Ravenclaw common room to find Hermione, Luna and surprisingly enough, Neville, waiting for him, fully dressed and holding theirs wands.

* * *

While the trio were being held against the wall, they saw a male with shining ice blue eyes stalk into the room and when his eyes fixated upon them, his face turned to rage.

"Why? Why did you betray them?" Harry shouted at Sirius as the rest of the group entered the room, Harry banished his daemons back into the warp to keep them from burning the place down.

* * *

"This is your one chance for a true family Harry; we both know that even though the Grangers have taken you in, you've always desired your own family, one that can help heal what the Dursley's did to you" Luna whispered in his ear.

* * *

"What is it Harry? He's the one led your parents to their deaths and my imprisonment, he deserves to die" Sirius said vehemently as everyone could see that he was itching to kill the traitor.

"For you Harry, I promised your parents I would protect you and give you a proper family and home and I intend to do that, no offense to Miss Granger and her family of course" Sirius said apologetically with a small sad smile towards Hermione.

* * *

"Harry listen to me, we will get another chance, but for now we must wait for it, Remus, the contingency plan," Sirius said to Remus as he held out his hand towards Remus with a determined expression.

Remus quickly nodded, reached into his pocket and withdrew a shrunken down broomstick that he quickly enlarged it.

* * *

The rest of the group stood silently as they watched Sirius escape into the night on his broomstick and when he was gone from their sights, Remus turned towards the others and let out a sigh.

"Come on you four, let's get you back up to the castle before anyone realises what's transpired this night," Remus said as he led them up the path back to the castle with a small smile gracing his lips.

* * *

"Ones greatest pleasure can come from family and this change will be good for you brother dear"

Harry smiled at her as he turned back towards the window and stared out if it, wondering how his summer will go and how it will change him.

 _'Besides, why should we settle for the magical world when there is a whole other world overflowing with people just ripe for the taking.'_


	2. Chapter 1 - The Beginning of the Storm

**_AN: (The Krabby Patty secret formula reveal song) Welcome everyone to the very first proper chapter of The Champions of Chaos Book Three: The Reckoning!_**

 ** _For this next part of the story, it will include both fourth and fifth years_**

 ** _But anyways my lovely fellow readers, onwards we ride!...into the story._**

 **Moonreaper666:** Probably, but what's more fun: a coup within Hogwarts, or a coup that encompasses the entire wizarding world?

 **harrysgurl22:** Only Hermione got petrified due to the consequences that followed after Luna's mother's death and the magical backlash affecting Luna's eyesight. Luna was taken into the chamber by Possessed Ginny, leaving Hermione to be found by another student.

* * *

Chapter 1 – **The Beginning of the Storm**

"Come back here you bookworm, we only want to talk with you" shouted a teenaged boy as he and his friends chased a similar aged girl across the street but stopped when she entered the towns library where she had always found solace from the bullies from around town.

"Finally, somewhere those oafs won't come in to; the library" said the girl with a hint of Irish in her voice, clearly quite happy that she had outrun the bullies, this time.

For a full fifteen minutes, the girl sat near the door with a book with one eye on the words and the other on the street, making sure that the bullies would not actually take the leap of faith and enter the library.

"Bullies?"

The girl squeaked in fear and spun around quickly to tell the person who scared her to go away before she stopped and stared at the softly smiling face in front of her.

"P-pardon?" she asked, silently berating herself over the hint of a quiver from the lingering shock.

"I saw that you were being chased by a group of bullies, I have personal experience so I know what it's like to be persecuted because of the pursuit of knowledge, may I take a seat and may I ask your name?" the male asked with a hand pointing towards one the seats.

"Sure, go ahead and my name is Sarah Cavanagh," the now named Sarah but getting a bit suspicious as to why the male in front of her was talking to her.

"Well Miss Cavanagh, you see I was in this very library for some time before you showed up, racing in to hide yourself from those whom you would call bullies, those who pursue knowledge are to be commended, in this day and age knowledge can certainly overcome a lot of problems."

As Sarah sat and listened, she became rather entranced by what the man across from her was saying, as if she could not tear herself away from listening.

"Let me guess you've always been the inquisitive type of person that would rather keep reading on a subject and then immediately go into another?"

"Sort of like that yes, but I always get road blocked because some of the subjects might be deemed too 'mature' for me to read" Sarah said with an annoyed sigh.

"Well hear this out then you can either tell me to bugger off because I'm a nutter, or we can talk some more and hopefully begin a friendship, sound okay to you?"

Sarah looked at the male with a critical eye, she had always been good at spotting lies whenever she was told them but with what this man had said, she could not even detect that he was lying at all, plus she really wanted to read something that was deemed too adult by her parents and she was going slightly crazy over not reading about it.

"I would say let's hear it, but I reserve the right to get up and walk away" Sarah said with a firm tone.

"That is perfectly find Miss Cavanagh, well firstly let me introduce myself; my name is Harry Potter and I'm here to offer you help…."

* * *

 ** _Scene break_**

* * *

During the night across the city was a nightclub, with music thumping loud and young people dancing to their hearts content, with friends, lovers or by themselves looking for a special someone.

Outside of the club was a girl named Lisa Jenkins, who was just shy of becoming of legal age and thus she was refused when she and her friends turned up at the nightclub looking for a fun time together.

"Dammit, I can't believe the nerve of that bouncer, all I wanted was a good time, maybe drink a little, even hook up with a guy but no, apparently I'm too much of a minor still to have a fun time" Lisa grumbled as she began to wait for a taxi come get her to take her home.

"You know if you wanted to have a fun time, you didn't really need to go to a nightclub, I can find you a much better activity to have fun in"

Lisa shrieked in terror as she whipped around with a hand over her heart and her hand almost calling for the police when she realised that the voice belonged to a teenaged girl.

"What did you say?" Lisa demanded of the girl.

"I said; _'You know if you wanted to have a fun time, you didn't really need to go to a nightclub, I can find you a much better activity to have fun in'_ "

Lisa stared at the girl with a raised eyebrow and was quite dismissive of her words.

"Please, like a fourteen-year-old would know what fun is, go back to mummy and daddy sweetheart, leave the real fun to the adults" Lisa said with a dismissive wave.

"We both know that you're not an adult, why would you be not allowed into the club if you were one? I can show you a much better high than these boring nightclubs"

Lisa was slightly intrigued as to what the young girl could show her but was still not buying into what she was selling.

"Alright, say I do believe you, what then? You take me back to your secret hideout and we eat pizza and watch sappy rom-coms all night?" Lisa huffed a laugh.

"No, I show you what real pleasure is and bring you to the peak of ecstasy, then you can decide whether or not to go back to your nightclubs and I'll go back to mummy and daddy"

Lisa was incredibly shocked and surprised at what the younger girl had stated and what Lisa thought in her mind, what she implied.

She was of two minds in what to do, on one hand she wanted to stay and wait for the taxi and on the other, she wanted to find out and explore if the younger girl was telling the truth.

"Say if I wanted to come with you, there's still the danger of being drugged and kidnapped from strange older men that could've used you as bait" Lisa said with a cautionary look towards the club and made sure she was still under a lamppost.

"True, but what's life without a little thrill, the more the thrill, the more pleasure you can get out of life, wouldn't you agree?" the younger girl said with what Lisa thought was a slight moan and smile.

After a few minutes of internal debating, Lisa's wild side came out on top and she started to walk towards the younger girl with a look of desire for the pleasure.

"You won't ever regret this Lisa my dear, oh and please call me Hermione, it will be such a pleasure…"

* * *

 **That is the first chapter of The Affliction, it's just a short one to ease ourselves back into the story and prep ourselves for the next one.**

 **Give it a good read, possibly even give a review as they are always welcome and it tells me if you're liking the story and you have yourself a very good day :)**


	3. Chapter 2 - Quidditch World Cup

_**AN: Sir Quackington McCreedy IV, now that is a lord that I would be willing to follow into a nice little shop and have cheese sandwich with.**_

 **Moonreaper666:** The Gods of Chaos are certainly real, we may meet a different one than we already know in the coming story.

* * *

Chapter 2 – **Quidditch World Cup**

After the duo's eventful summer and helping their own ways to several people for each, they were invited to the 442nd Quidditch world cup by Neville, who was going with his grandmother due to how she said the family must be seen at such an event.

"It certainly would provide us with a distraction, besides our studies and letters to friends, we have been becoming a bit bored lately, I say we accept" Hermione said as she stretched like a cat on her bed.

Harry nodded in acceptance as he did think that they were becoming bored with their summer lately, one can only go so far in trying to convert people, complete summer homework and not get exhausted in one go.

"Alright we are agreed then, shall I send the letter or shall you?"

"I'll send it, you sent the last one and so it's my turn this time," Hermione said as she got up from her bed and began to pen a letter to their good friend.

Harry looked over towards his owls and saw that Xirat'p had a letter attached to one of her legs and was curious as to what his friend Sarah wanted to tell him.

Harry grabbed the letter and when he read what it said, his eyebrows raised slightly in surprise. 

_Dear Harry_

 _I hope this letter finds you in good health_

 _When we first met during my little hide away from those bullies, I did not expect anyone to come to my help when I needed it_

 _You were right when you said that knowledge could overcome problems in this current day and age, when I told my parents about the bullies, they said I should keep my head down and the problem will go away as it is what they did during their school days_

 _I tried doing that a week after you and I me in the library and it didn't help, they surrounded me after school and gave me a few bruises_

 _With full confidence in my heart and full understanding in my head, I accept your offer of help_

 _Regards_

 _Sarah Cavanagh_

Harry stared at the letter with manic glee entering his eyes as Xirat'p and P'tarix looked at their master with happiness in their eyes at seeing their master so happy.

Harry quickly grabbed a piece of paper and penned a response back to Sarah so the corruption of sweet, innocent little Sarah could begin. 

_Dear Sarah_

 _It saddens me to hear that your parents would give you bad advice that directly led to you being injured_

 _However, it makes me incredibly happy to hear that you have decided to take me up on my offer of help and so I have enclosed a special item that when you wear it, those who wish you harm, will have a specialised type of harm done in retaliation_

 _Remember, you must wear it for the effects to happen, it deals with what we discussed and what I showed you back in the library_

 _There is always power in knowledge, learn as much as you can and prove those who would keep you down false_

 _Find any of your friends that are in the same position and keep them close to you it will help them_

 _Kind Regards_

 _Harry Potter_

Harry looked over and re-read the letter several times just in case he made a mistake but could not find any.

As soon as he finished looking it over, he asked his ever-faithful Xirat'p to send the letter to Sarah and received a bob of her head in agreement.

Before he tied his letter to Xirat'p's leg however, he quickly grabbed the specialised item that he had created just before he met Sarah and enclosed it within the letter.

After Harry had finished his task, he watched as Xirat'p fly out of the window with a dark smirk on his face, as he envisioned what would come from his friendship with Sarah.

* * *

 _ **Scene break**_

* * *

After receiving confirmation from Neville about him and his grandmother sending over a portkey, Harry and Hermione were standing in the living room waiting for the portkey to activate when Gwen quickly gave her daughter a piece of advice.

"When you both arrive at your event with your friend, make sure not to drive most of the boys crazy there okay Hermione?" Gwen said as she waved a hand at Hermione, indicating towards her new dress style.

"Now where's the fun in that mum? If any boy tries anything, dearest brother Harry can keep them off me" Hermione said with a wink as she slung an arm around Harry's shoulder.

Hermione giggled as she saw her father's face begin to turn red and start to shout to Harry about protecting his little girl but as soon as he did, the portkey began to activate and sent Harry and Hermione flying off in a portal.

* * *

 _ **Scene break**_

* * *

As the duo were deposited onto the ground quite firmly, Harry began to slightly swear at the horrendous method of transport.

"Whoa Hermione, liking the new look! Well don't just stand there and embrace me!" a shout from behind them startled them slightly.

When Harry and Hermione turned around, they saw their best friend Neville waiting with arms open and waiting for them.

After the three of them finished hugging, Neville began to lead them through the crowd.

Both Harry and Hermione could see person after person, man, woman, child and sometimes an elf as they continued their way into the crowd.

"There are so many people here, the feelings of everyone's dreams and hopes in the air, it's almost palpable," Harry said to himself as they passed a family of four wearing bright green, showing their support for the Irish Team.

"The pleasure they will have and the excess they will get into when their team wins, it brings tingles down my spine," Hermione also whispered to herself as the cheers for either team could be heard throughout the camping site.

When the trio arrived at the Longbottom campsite, they were interrupted by a sneering voice that made their good moods dampen slightly.

"Potter, the mudblood and Longbottom? Just goes to show how far blood traitors have fallen doesn't it father?"

The trio groaned slightly as they turned around and to their non-surprise, the Malfoy family were just a few metres behind them.

"Draco! How good to see you again my friend, and you also Mr Malfoy, I hope always hope to see you again and who is this beautiful woman beside you? I must've had good fortune to meet you on this day good madam," Harry put on his perfect gentleman look as he turned towards the woman accompanying the two male Malfoys.

The female only raised an eyebrow at Harry's attitude began to reply to him, if only to aggravate the males in her company.

"My name is Narcissa Malfoy Mr Potter, it is good to see some men in this world still have their manners regarding women," Mrs Malfoy said as subtly looked towards her own son.

As Harry and Mrs Malfoy began to speak about general subjects, Hermione and Neville saw that Malfoy Jr and Snr begin to redden until Malfoy Jr suddenly burst out in anger.

"Potter! Stop talking to my mother and bugger off!"

Harry excused himself quickly and turned towards, in his view, the pest that was Draco Malfoy.

"We are only discussing politics Draco, nothing wrong with that"

Harry sighed in resignation and turned back towards his discussion partner.

"It would seem that fate has decided to end this discussion and change our course Mrs Malfoy, it was an absolute pleasure to talk to you, have a good day," Harry said with a small smile to all three members of the Malfoy family.

As Harry and his friends watched the Malfoys walk away, both Malfoy men gave them glares that would have put them six feet under if glares could kill.

"Alright Harry what was that about?" Neville asked his friend about his weird actions.

"What? Politics are interesting to talk about and plus, it pissed off Malfoy Snr and Jr, all the more better in my opinion," Harry snorted as he waved towards the Longbottom tent, indicating they should continue along as well.

As the trio entered the tent, they saw several old women sitting in chairs, surrounding a table with steaming cups of tea, talking to each other.

"Grandmother, these are my friends that I've told you about, Harry Potter and Hermione Granger" Neville introduced them and as Neville's grandmother turned towards them, her eyes slightly widened in recognition as she took in not so subtly looked at Harry's scar.

"So you're the two that have given my grandson more confidence, well he certainly needs it these days, we all thought he was a squib back when he was young, now look at him, near the top of his year and living up to his parent's name."

"Anyway, my name is Augusta Longbottom and as you both know I am Neville's grandmother," and after finishing that sentence, she went back to talking with her friends about the state of the country and what they would if they were in control.

Neville looked at his friends with an apologetic smile at his grandmother's actions but he only got smiles in return and seeing them brightened his mood considerably.

Neville led them towards the area that was far enough from the ladies conversation and began their own discussion about the upcoming quidditch match.

* * *

 _ **Scene break**_

* * *

After end of the quidditch match, which Ireland won, the trio were back in the Longbottom tent when the noise outside began to kick up, making them think that the revelry was increasing.

"Certainly sounds like the fans are having fun, by the sound of those explosions," Hermione said with a smile.

However, after she said it, _very_ loud explosions sounded that seemed like it was right next to them.

The trio looked at each with raised eyebrows as the sound and was interrupted by screaming so Neville stood up to poke his head out of the tent.

When he turned back to his friends, his face was slightly pale and his voiced what he saw to his friends, as they were equally curious to find out what was going on.

"We have to get out of here, some people are going around attacking the crowds, come on!" Neville shouted the last part as his friends quickly got up to escape.

When they got out of the tent, they entered an area that was pure chaos.

 _Panic._

 _Fire._

 _Screaming._

Scores of people were trampling over each to escape the black robed men who were casting spells at random people, setting tents alight and sometimes sending a green coloured curse that struck down people who did not move after they were hit.

As the trio began to run with the crowd, they continued to see people be trampled to the ground and people tread over them in hopes to escape the devastation.

After coming across a murdered family, which included a trio of children, Harry became fed up of running and chose instead to change the game slightly.

"They wish to spread fear and chaos, I'll show them but a taste of what **real** chaos can do," Harry whispered as he turned towards the group that was causing the explosions that was getting closer and closer to them with eyes closed and said a few words under his breath.

After Harry had said his words, Hermione and Neville noticed that the area around them began to fill with black smoke and move towards Harry.

As the black smoke began to thicken slightly, Harry inhaled a deep breath with the black smoked being inhaled also, and as soon as he finished drawing in the breath, he exhaled with a roar and a flash of a pink spark, the breath became a cloud of swirling chaotic energy that raced towards the robed men.

Harry, Hermione and Neville watched as the men in stopped in their tracks and one by one, they slowly began to scream in pain and horror as the noticed that their comrades and themselves, were staring to melt as if they were made of wax.

While the trio were watching the men melt while screaming in agony as their internal organs slowly melted, their attention was suddenly draw to the sky as a giant green skull appeared, with a snake exiting its mouth.

' _The mark of Voldemort? What's that doing up there?'_ was Harry's last thought before Neville's hand grabbed his shoulder just before their portkey whisked them away to safety.

* * *

 _ **Now that Harry has begun the corruption of his new friend, how long will it take for it to be complete? Will Malfoy Jr try anything at Hogwarts because of Harry daring to speak with his mother? Will Harry's conscience be just after killing those men? Will his friends be all right with it? Will there be any repercussions from it? Find out next time of The Affliction!**_

 _ **Give it a good read, possibly even give a review as they are always welcome and it tells me if you're liking the story and you have yourself a very good day :)**_


	4. Chapter 3 - The Announcement & Arrivals

_**AN:**_ You know, it's times like these I like to reflect on how far we've come, where we are right now and what can we look forwards to in the future…. that's if NASA will get off their lazy asses and get to shooting those rockets up in space cause I still waiting on my easy trip to Mars.

 **robwar80:** Thank you for the review and I'm glad you enjoy it that much

 **moonreaper666:** Harry pretty much only did it to piss both male Malfoys off, what better way than to act the perfect gentleman to the mother? _If_ he fails, it'll probably be his physical form, spiritual form will endure to reform within the warp.

* * *

Chapter 3 – **The Announcement & Arrivals**

It was the day when the students of Hogwarts returned to the school.

As the Hogwarts express continued to travel along the countryside, Harry and his core group of friends were sitting in their compartment, talking about the ramifications of the attack on the Quidditch World Cup when the cabin door opened interrupted them.

When the group turned their heads to the door, they saw that it was Daphne Greengrass with a letter in her hand.

"Mr Potter-"Daphne began to speak but Harry cut her off before she continued.

"Daphne; we've known each other for three years now, may we continue into a friendship where we call each other by our given names?" Harry smiled, as Daphne could not speak for a few seconds.

"Harry then, this is from the girls and me," was all Daphne said before she handed him the letter and quickly walked away.

Only Neville and Ginny's heads turned to Harry with a bewildered look on their faces but Harry just waved their concerns on.

"Daphne and I got to talking last year and she seems like a nice girl" Harry shrugged his shoulders at, in his mind, a simple explanation.

The others shrugged their shoulders as well at Harry's explanation and went back to their previous discussions before they were interrupted.

Harry held the letter in front of him while looking over it with a critical eye; _'The girls wouldn't try anything and by the way Daphne's voice was, it seemed as though what is in this letter is genuine, hmm'_ Harry thought as he opened the letter to read what was inside. 

_Harry_

 _We asked around the study group and it looks like our group was above the rest in the academic tree_

 _Lavender, Daphne and I discussed it during the summer holidays and we have decided to accept your offer, if the offer is still open, to study further on with you and Hermione_

 _Don't mind Daphne if she is still a bit suspicious of the offer, she is a Slytherin after all but me and Lavender are all for it_

 _Signed_

 _Padma Patil_

 _Lavender Brown_

 _Daphne Greengrass_

' _Well, well, well, looks like our circle will grow even further'_ Harry to himself as he pocketed the letter and entered the group's conversation.

* * *

 _ **Scene break**_

* * *

"Welcome! Welcome to another year of Hogwarts and welcome to those who are starting their first year at this school, now before we go any further, I have an announcement to make; Hogwarts has been chosen to host a legendary event, one that has not been active for the past few centuries" Dumbledore held the attention of majority of the great hall, with only a select few not caring.

As Dumbledore began to speak again, a man in a bowler hat with a Hitler moustache **(Come on now, Crouch Snr really looks like Hitler with that 'stache)** walked to the side of Dumbledore, pulling a small cart with a large container along with him.

"Three champions from their selective schools are chosen by the Goblet of Fire to represent their schools in the Tri-Wizard Tournament! Eternal glory awaits the one who wins," Dumbledore waved a hand over the container and as it slowly began to melt away, a bright, gleaming cup was revealed, captivating the students with its glory.

' _Champions selected based on what? Skill? Magical Strength? Intelligence?'_ Harry thought as he looked around the hall, only to see the majority of the students were still captivated, but thankfully Hermione and slightly oddly enough, Neville were not.

"In addition to our fair school hosting and entering this event, we will also play host to two other schools that will enter the Tournament; first, the lovely ladies of Beauxbatons Academy of Magic!" Dumbledore waved his wand at the doors and as they opened, two rows of powder blue dressed women entered with superior looks on their face.

Hermione looked around subtly and saw that a numerous amount of boys, and some girls, were looking at the ladies of Beauxbatons with a bit of lust in their eyes but it flared up when a silvery-blonde haired female followed at the rear with a smaller version of her and a _very_ large woman by her side.

' _They honestly think she's beautiful? I've seen beauty that would make the soul go mad from lust'_

" _ **There is something about those two by the large woman, drawing lust from the opposite sex, interesting indeed"**_ Slaanesh's sweet voice interrupted her inner thoughts as Hermione did notice something, off, about them too.

While Hermione was conversing with Slaanesh, Harry was similarly conversing about the new additions with Tzeentch.

' _Blue, such a lovely colour to choose, I wonder if there are any true intellectuals in that group, it might give us the opportunity to give fortune to those who haven't been given the gift of the warp'_

" _ **You would do well to be careful champion, try too hard and you will be noticed, be a conspirator from the shadows"**_ Tzeentch's voice got Harry thinking of ways he could approach the additions but was interrupted by Dumbledore speaking again.

"And finally, the students of Durmstrang!"

The doors banged open with another two rows, but this time they were burly, sour face males that entered the hall with a male at the back being escorted by the headmaster.

" _ **Serious, no nonsense types of people and glares everywhere, Khorne would love them if they didn't have their magic,"**_ Tzeentch added.

As the three schools began to settle down, it seemed as if Beauxbatons had chosen to sit at the Ravenclaw table and Durmstrang sitting at the Slytherin table.

Harry, Hermione and Luna began to overhear and see their housemates whispering and pointing towards their new tablemates but they just scoffed at their idiocy.

"Really? As soon as they sit down, people begin to whisper about the new foreign people, idiots, the lot of them," Harry said with a sigh of exasperation at his housemates as they looked back towards the front when the person to the back left of Dumbledore came back to the Goblet.

"Ah yes I almost forgot, allow me to introduce some more honoured guests of ours, firstly is the Head of the Ministry of Magic's Department of International Magical Cooperation, Bartemius Crouch" at this, Crouch stepped forward slightly and gave a small bow and smile.

"And secondly; the Head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports, Ludo Bagman" again like Crouch, Bagman stepped forth and gave a small bow and smile to the students.

After the introductions were given, Dumbledores' face turned serious as he looked over the students and gave them a warning that he hoped would deter those below seventh year.

"To ensure the safety of younger students, I am drawing an age line around the Goblet so no student under the age of seventeen shall be allowed entry to the Tournament, this is final!" Dumbledore shouted the last part as a large majority of the Hogwarts students began to shout their outrage.

"Should you choose to enter and are chosen, there is no turning back for once chosen, a binding magical contract is made," and with that final word, Dumbledore walked back to his chair to start dinner.

When Dumbledore finished, the noise level of the great hall increased dramatically as students began to talk about entering, even those who under seventeen and others talking about what the Tournament might include.

"There are so many better ways than entering this Tournament for glory, for warps sake they ended it due to how many people were killed in it!" Harry said with huff as he thought that these people were not even fit for Tzeentch's madness.

"What was the letter that Daphne gave you about?" Hermione asked as she turned towards Harry.

"Oh that, our group of friends is increasing Hermione my dear, I told them to meet us by the chamber entrance tomorrow afternoon, but worded differently" Harry eased Hermione's concerns when he said chamber.

While the duo discussed what they might do when the time came to show their friends their little hideaway, they did not notice a heavily scarred man, seated at the high table, staring directly at them.

' _My Lord will rise again Potter and the first blood that shall be spilled will be yours!'_

* * *

 _ **Now that the trio of girls have accepted Harry and Hermione's offer of further study, how long will it be before the temptation of more power sets in? Will the Tri-Wizard Tournament interfere with the trio's study of the warp? Will the French witch attempt to find out more about Harry? And just what does the heavily scarred man plan for Harry and who is his Lord? Find out next time The Affliction!**_

 **Give it a good read, possibly even give a review as they are always welcome and it tells me if you're liking the story and you have yourself a very good day :)**


	5. Chapter 4 - Moody & Curiosity

_**AN: There comes a time when you realise that it's 3am in the morning, you're watching videos about ducks and you have to ask yourself; what path did I take to come to this? Well my dear reader, you certainly didn't choose yellow brick road that's for sure.**_

* * *

Chapter 4 – **Moody & Curiosity**

The next day came and with it, Daphne and her friend's curiosity grew with every passing hour; what would Harry and Hermione show them? Would it be in a safe area? Was it easily accessible? These questions plagued their minds as they made the journey towards the second floor.

"Where do you think they'll be taking us? I mean there aren't any good areas that are large enough for five people to fully practice spells," Lavender said as the trio turned another corner.

"They're proven themselves as quite intelligent so I'm betting that they have something up their sleeves, merlin knows strange things always happen around Harry," Padma also voided her thoughts with a shrug.

The girls continued to discuss where their friends would be taking them and when they turned another corner, they saw that the two of them were waiting for them, talking softly amongst themselves.

Harry and Hermione noticed the girls walking towards them and turned to them with a smile.

"Hello you three, now I'm pretty sure you're all wondering where we will be going since there aren't any good places around here, but you'd be wrong, turn around" Harry said, indicating with his hand.

When they did turn around, they saw that they were in front of the second floor girl toilets, home to one very loud and moaning ghost.

"Really Harry? This is where we will get further studying done?" Daphne said with a disbelieving eyebrow raised.

"But of course, no one come in here and the best part about it, no one knows where our training location is" Harry smirked and laughed a little as he saw that both Padma and Lavender turned towards him with raised eyebrows.

To ease their concerns, Harry only turned towards the sinks and to the others dread, whispered a word in parseltongue and the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets opened.

"You wanted to know where we will be studying further on, well here it is; the Chamber of Secrets" and with that, Harry began to lead them down the stairs, all the while laughing at their wide eyes and open mouths, with Hermione at the rear to make sure no one knew where they were.

* * *

 _ **Scene break**_

* * *

When the group came before the entrance to the inner chamber, they saw the great iron door did not have snake motifs that they thought Slytherin might have used on it, it had an eight-pointed barbed double circle **(AN1)**.

"I bet you're wondering about the door, right? Well Hermione and I have been busy and chose to change the door; we wanted something that encompassed all and keep everything undivided" Harry said with a shrug as he opened the door to the inner chamber.

As the group walked further in, the trio of girls saw that in front of a giant stone face, a stone altar lay with two symbols on them, sending chills up their spines for very different reasons.

"So anyway, this is where Hermione and I have been studying and practicing our spell work for the past year, ever since I cleaned this place out it's become ours"

"And what exactly are they for?" Padma asked as she pointed towards the symbols on the altar.

Harry looked at Hermione but only received a raised eyebrow in return as he quickly thought up an excuse.

"They are a story for later date, now come on; we have defence in twenty minutes and it wouldn't do our group to be seen together just yet for fear of repercussions" at this Harry looked at Daphne, understanding that her house would almost tear her apart if they were seen together.

As they began to exit the chamber, Daphne, Lavender and Padma all heard subtle whispers in their heads, but they shrugged them off as if they were from themselves.

* * *

 _ **Scene break**_

* * *

"My name is Alastor Moody and I will your Defence against the Dark Teacher for this year and only this year as a favour for Dumbledore" Moody glared at the class while his fake eye kept whizzing around, stopping sometimes on random students.

"In regards to the dark arts, I believe in a practical approach, which is why Dumbledore has given me permission to demonstrate several spells as I believe it is to know what you're up against and so you can properly defend against it"

When Moody said this, a portion of the class inhaled a sharp breath and some (the slytherin boys) not so subtly leant forward slightly, as if in anticipation to see what they will get to see.

"Now to begin with, can anyone tell me one of the names of the unforgiveable curses?" Moody's fake eye spun at every student, waiting for someone to raise his or her hand but no one did.

"Weasley! Give me a curse" Ron jumped as Moody shouted his name and stuttered a response.

"T-t-the Imperius curse"

"Oh yes I know all about that one, gave the Ministry trouble years back and I shall show you why" Moody walked back to his desk and grabbed a spider from a jar _**(Quick question, is it an actual spider or some other creature? Can someone please tell me because all I have found is that it is a spider but it sure does not look like one)**_ and placed it on the front table.

" _Imperio!"_ Moody grunted as the spider suddenly became carefree and almost floaty in comparison to the rigidness it had looked before.

Harry, Hermione and Neville watched at the back as Moody began to make the spider leap across table after table, climbing onto random students and when the spider came in front of Harry, he did not bat an eyelid as it began to crawl over him.

Moody watched as tried to get a reaction from Harry with the spider but only watched as his bright ice blue eyes drilled into his, making his turn away from him, lest the control over the spider break.

"Manipulation at its finest," whispered Harry as Moody broke the spell.

"Scores of witches and wizards has used this curse as a cheat clause to get scot free from jail, it was prevalent at the end of the war against You-Know-Who, and those who did his bidding used this as an excuse because they were such weak willed"

Moody's fake eye whizzed around and stared at Malfoy, which made him redden slightly in anger.

"But now, how can we sort out the liars of these so-called weak willed magic users?" Moody grumbled as he asked for the second curse.

Hermione raised her hand and just like Harry, she driller her uniquely pink eyes into Moody as she gave him the curse.

"Yes, the Cruciatus Curse"

" _Crucio!"_ the spider began to squeal loudly as the pain of white-hot knives began to drive itself into the nerves of the spider.

Moody looked over towards the back table, hoping to get some reaction from them but what he saw unnerved him immensely.

Pink eyes, dancing and glistening brightly as Hermione took in with an almost pleasurable relish the spider's pain as it continued to squeal loudly.

He looked over at Neville but he still did not get a reaction from him, which surprised him slightly as he knew Neville's parents were tortured into insanity with this curse.

"Pain at an almost pleasurable scale" whispered Hermione as Moody broke the spell and asked for the last curse while looking directly at Harry.

"The Killing Curse" surprisingly, Neville answered as he spoke up with confidence.

"Yes, the last and most unforgiveable out of the three, _Avada Kedavra!"_ Moody spat at the spider and as the green light captured the spider in its glory, no one spoke a word as the students witnessed the killing curse being used.

"The inevitable end of all," Neville whispered to himself as they watched the spider being killed.

' _Did Neville just say something?'_ both Harry and Hermione thought as Moody looked back at the class.

"The killing curse, so named because it could not be blocked and survive it, until Potter came along that is" while Moody said this, it seemed to Harry that he glared at him, ever so slightly but it was there if you looked hard.

"I was more worthy of life in the eyes of magic" Harry scoffed, which made the majority of the Slytherins bristle with anger at his words.

"Hmm, maybe Potter but right now in this class room I will be the one finding out if anyone is worthy because right now I'm going to subject you all to the Imperius curse, as I said at the beginning of this class I have permission to do it, so all of you stand up and get in a line," Moody shouted as the class scrambled into a line.

The first in line to be put under the Imperius curse was one of Harry's half-friend/friend Anthony Goldstein, who Moody made to run around the class like a chicken.

Further on the line went down; Ron Weasley was made to profess his everlasting love for Malfoy, Susan Bones was made to attempt to dance like a Ballerina, Daphne seemed as if she was going to break the curse but succumbed to it until it came to Harry.

As the others watched Harry be put under the Imperius curse, he did not move, as if waiting for something to happen and the class was shocked to hear him suddenly speak out.

"Is something supposed to happen?"

Moody had a shocked look on his face at Harry's words and only laughed as he congratulated him.

The pattern repeated until it came to Hermione when just like with Harry, Hermione's eyes twinkled in amusement that such a spell could ever control the champion of Slaanesh.

"Interesting, two students who could throw off the Imperius curse as if it were nothing, maybe Longbottom will do the same huh?" Moody smirked as Neville stepped up to the plate.

Every single person in the classroom, including Harry and Hermione, were shocked when they saw that Neville did not react to the Imperius curse but only raised an eyebrow in response.

"It's good to see some students are strong enough to fight the curse off, when I saw in this school the majority of my classmates were able to do it," Moody snarled at the students who were not able to resist the curse.

When the end of class bell rang, looks were sent at the three students that exited the class first, not giving a single look back as they cared not for what was to be said.

* * *

 _ **Now that our Champions have shown the girls the training area, will the proximity of the altar hasten the corruption? Will the reactions from Harry, Hermione and Neville prompt further interest from Moody? Find out next time on The Affliction!**_

 **AN1: It is the symbol of Chaos from the Lexicanum website, as I do not have a codex handy nearby.**

 **Give it a good read, possibly even give a review as they are always welcome and it tells me if you're liking the story and you have yourself a very good day :)**


	6. Chapter 5 - The Selection

_**AN: Yes I just realised that the one I uploaded was wrong and thank you to the person who made me realise it. I've spoiled a surprise now, well I apologise for that and all I can say is shit.**_

 **Moonreaper666:** Could be, maybe he's a hidden one from another patron?

 **BROMBOS:** I've taken your advice and it's installed for future chapters, so hopefully they'll be better and thank you muchly for the name of the species of spider because that was bugging me for some time.

* * *

Chapter 5 – **The Selection**

As the weeks passed into the void, with Hermione introducing Lavender to the basis of her speciality of warp use, it came to the time for the choosing of the Tri-Wizard champions had come and it, the anticipation of many a student have risen to almost palpable feel in the air.

The Ravenclaw trio was making small talk at their house table when Dumbledore interrupted them as he stood up to begin the selection ceremony.

"Students of Hogwarts, Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, it is time for the Goblet of Fire to select the Champions!" Dumbledore waved his hand across the hall and as he passed the sconces, the fires within them began to dull until the light in the great hall had dimmed substantially.

Everyone watched as the goblet began to churn and after a few seconds, it spat out a piece of parchment, straight into Dumbledores hand.

"The Champion for Durmstrang, Viktor Krum!" Dumbledore shouted as the Durmstrang students roared with applause and cheers for their schoolmate.

There was a smattering of applause amongst the Hogwarts houses but a large set of applause came from the Slytherins.

Krum walked up to the front and was directed to an antechamber off to the side, and was instructed to wait there until the rest had been chosen.

Everyone quietened down for the next selection and as the goblet spat out the second piece of parchment, the parchment had a bit of elegance to it, signalling it came from Beauxbatons.

"The Champion for Beauxbatons, Fleur Delacour!"

Harry and Hermione gave their new friend a smile as Fleur walked the same path as Krum and entered the antechamber.

Again, the students were silent as they waited for the Hogwarts Champion to be selected.

"The Champion for Hogwarts, Cedric Diggory!

This time, there was an even more thunderous applause but for the Hogwarts champion as he was well liked from nearly all of the houses and was a likeable person.

Cedric walked the same path as the previous champions and once again, the great hall was left in silence.

"Excellent! The champions have been selected- "Dumbledore trailed off as he saw that the teachers at the head table had moved their attention back to the goblet as it began to spit and flare up with bright red flames as it miraculously spat out another name.

Dumbledore grabbed the parchment and was stunned when he read it out.

"Harry Potter? Harry Potter!"

When the entirety of the great hall heard Harry's name being called out, all that could be heard was several goblets around him suddenly crack and shatter into pieces.

'Why didn't I see this coming!? I'm supposed to be a watcher of the strings and I couldn't even see this coming, poor excuse for a champion of the Architect of Fate indeed' Harry thought furiously as he continued to stay within his own mindscape when his elbow was prodded several times.

When Harry snapped his neck up to give a glare that was worthy of Tzeentch himself at the person who interrupted his thinking, he noticed that the populace of the great hall was staring at him with looks of shock, anger, jealousy and some even had pity.

"Harry they called your name, I'm sorry but you need to go up there," Luna said softly with a great deal of sadness as she tried to convey her support for her friend.

Harry, with silence and incredible reluctance, stood up slowly and began what could only be called a funeral march.

With each step he took, students began to shout that he was a cheater and how he was not of legal age, which made Harry even angrier, resulting in every goblet he passed shattering in pieces, exactly like the ones that were next to him when his name came out.

As the shouts became louder and louder, Harry's anger began to manifest itself by the sconces flaring up with warp fire at least a metre high, lighting the great hall up, as if there were no shadows, to begin with.

As he walked by Dumbledore, he saw only pity and a bit of calculating in his warp damned twinkling eyes but ignored it as he continued towards the antechamber.

 **Scene break**

As Harry entered the antechamber, he began to walk over towards a trophy case that did not hold a trophy in it and started to punch it repeatedly, hard.

When the other champions noticed the door being opened, to their great surprise, Harry walked in with a furious face and again to their great surprise, began to attempt to shatter a trophy case.

For several minutes, Harry punched the glass and every time it shattered, he repaired it a wave of his wand, only to begin punching it again before the entry door opened again, with multiple people entering this time.

As the adults entered the room, they were greeted by the three legitimate champions standing off to the side with the illegally entered champion furiously battering away at the trophy case with a look of anguish on his face.

When Dumbledore attempted to gain the attention of the trophy case assaulting teen, he was treated with a glare that made everyone, including himself, turn away in sheer terror at the power fuelled blue eyes.

After a few seconds, though, they heard a pair of feet shuffle away from the case and sit in a chair next to the fire.

As soon as they could look back up again, the adults began their interrogation of Harry, not giving himself a chance to explain his situation.

"Harry did you put your name in the goblet of fire?!"

"Just like your father gain Potter, always showing off, being pig-headed and attempting garner fame everywhere"

Question after question came at him and after the tenth question, Harry shouted in anger, his anger turning the fire into a roaring fire that made everyone besides him sweat a bit.

"Now, I am only going to say this once; I DID NOT enter my name into the goblet of fire, I never wanted this as I find this whole tournament stupid to being with, I have better things to worry about such as getting my continuous high marks in school and possibly even date a girl"

"If you can't get that through your thick skulls, then it is YOUR fault, not mine!" Harry spat at them with fury.

"Potter! Fifty points from Ravenclaw for being disrespectful to the headmaster and myself in front of honoured guests!" Snape spat at Harry venomously.

Dumbledore quickly interceded before an argument could break out between the two and quickly asked Bartemius Crouch Snr about whether Harry had to compete or not.

"The goblet of fire is a binding magical contract, there is no other way for Mr Potter to exit the tournament, as of right now, Mr Potter is our fourth tri-wizard champion!" Crouch said with a flair drama, adding fuel to Harry's annoyance.

"But this is impossible Headmistress, he is but a little boy" Fleur sneered, not noticing Harry bristle slightly at her insult.

'Little boy? We'll see how little I am when I set your very soul on fire' Harry thought darkly before reigning in his inner thoughts and took a deep breath.

"Well, this is obviously a ploy for Hogwarts to have a better chance at winning, I will be taking my students and will leave this farce immediately," Karkaroff snarled.

"Empty threat Karkaroff, you and your other students can leave but your champion has to stay to compete or lest he lose his magic" Moody growled as he stalked his way up to the Durmstrang headmaster.

"Let us continue this discussion at a later date, for now, let us give the champions their task date and then send them off to bed" Dumbledore suggested and received agreements from the others.

Barty Crouch gathered the champions and gave them their clue for the first task; the task would involve two of the primal elements, air and fire, with the inclusion of the task date on 24th November.

After receiving the clue, the champions began to split off with Harry shrugging off an escort that was Dumbledore and received a warning about staying out late in return.

 **Scene break**

When Cedric entered the Hufflepuff common room, he entered to a thunderous round of applause from his housemates besides a few, including Neville.

But when a few people began to shout out that Harry was a cheater and was trying to steal Hufflepuff's spotlight and glory, he noticed that Neville was gripping his wand a bit too tightly, signalling he was about to cast spells and not really care where they were going.

"Everyone listen to me! Now I admit that I don't know Harry well enough for us to be friends, but I can certainly say this; he DID NOT enter his name into the goblet" Cedric tried to calm down the crowd but was only drowned out by more shouts.

While Cedric was attempting to calm down his housemates, Neville was desperately trying to keep himself for his brother's sake and his own but was failing when he felt the touch of someone that knew him best.

'Calm Neville, as much as you'd want to teach them the glorious feeling of pain, it wouldn't do any good to your brother's situation'

Neville silently agreed with his more rational side and kept a close ear out for any more attempts at defending Harry.

"Look, let's look at Harry's track record at Hogwarts; have we ever known him to be deceiving at all? How about hurtful towards any student who has not hurt him before, more importantly, we Hufflepuffs? And second year doesn't count because Dumbledore himself erased Harry as being the Heir of Slytherin personally."

When that defence for Harry was said, it got a few people thinking about if whether Harry wanted this or not but there were still a good deal of people that were against being in the tournament and trying to take Cedric's spotlight.

"Look, I'm as upset about this as you are but at least for a Hogwarts brother who has been entered into a dangerous contest against his will where there is a huge chance of him dying since he is only a fourth year," Cedric's words were still making sense but he silently snorted when he talked about Harry being a fourth year.

'He could take you down easily Diggory, the magic you wield is nothing compared to the power that he has, nor could you ever comprehend how much he has.'

 **Scene break**

When Harry did not come back to the Ravenclaw common room, Hermione, Luna and Padma were worried about their friend's safety and mental health when Luna got up and walked towards the common room door.

When asked where she was going, Luna only responded with that she was going to make sure that Harry was okay.

"I'm going to make sure that my best friend is okay, tonight has been a trying time for him and so I want to make sure he hasn't hurt himself, you two are always welcome to join me," and with that the trio walked out the common room, with no one batting an eyelid at them.

 **Scene break**

In the Gryffindor common room, Ron Weasley was attempting to gain support win with his anti-Harry groups and was gaining some ground with all of his speeches that only a dark wizard could get past Dumbledore's age line when they were not even at the legal age.

'That boy is an idiot' Lavender thought as she got up with a huff and began to make her way out of the Gryffindor common room, for the exact same reason as the Ravenclaw girls.

 **Scene break**

In the Slytherin common room, the same thing was happening but instead of being a dark wizard, there were calls of Potter being a glory hound with delusions of grandeur from the pureblood faction.

Daphne sat back and looked into her friendship with Harry and his friends; he certainly proved to be the opposite of what the Slytherins were saying about him and so got up as quietly as she could and left to find the others and hope to find her friend as well.

 **Scene break**

As the girls met up and became one large group, the entered the lavatories to see that the entrance to the chamber was left wide open, which was not a good sign of Harry's mental wellbeing.

Slowly and carefully, the girls continued down and into the chamber, sometimes coming across scorch marks and deep gashes that only could have been made by a very large creature, or something else.

As they arrived at the great iron door, it too was open and no sound was coming from the inner chamber, just pure silence, which made everyone's nerves spike up dramatically.

Slowly the continued their way into the inner chamber, noticing that the snakeheads had been either destroyed completely, replaced with a creature that only Hermione and Luna knew of, or both until they noticed a lone figure, standing in front of plinth that held a book.

As they looked around the inner chamber, scores of scorch marks and deep gashes made themselves known in the light that made them shiver in fear slightly as they all thought the same thought without realising it: _What the hell happened in here?_

 _ **Will the groups training become jeopardised because of the tournament? Just who put Harry's name in the goblet of fire? Will the school's impressions of him fall and begin to taunt him? Will they support him? Moreover, what will meet the girls when they enter the Chamber? Find out next time of The Affliction!**_

 _ **AN2: I chose to write Harry's response to the selection this way because not everything can go the way Harry wants it to go, he has to face something he could not predict and something he has been forced into.**_

 _ **He is going to be emotional, like any person would, when your 14 and you have magic, the warp and hormones raging through his body, it's gonna be (pardon the pun) internal chaos inside of him.**_

 _ **AN3: I have something pretty awesome planned for the first task and I do hope it will be as awesome as it sounds in my head.**_

 _ **Give it a good read, possibly even give a review as they are always welcome and it tells me if you're liking the story and you have yourself a very good day :)**_


	7. Chapter 6 - Offers, Annoyance & Beasts

_**AN: Can you guess who they are? The ones that hide in the shadows?**_

 **Moonreaper666:** Eeeeyup they're here.

 **robwar80:** Thank you very muchly for pointing that out to me cause I don't think I would've realised until waaaay later.

* * *

Chapter 6 – **Offers, Annoyances & Beasts**

As the group continued to look around the chamber in awe and slight fear, a voice interrupted their thoughts and quickly brought them back to reality.

"Did you know that in some cultures if you didn't know how to maintain your weapon you were considered to be born in the wrong place?" Harry said as he turned around, only to see fear in the eyes of his friends.

"Look I'm sorry for scaring you with all of this but I needed to vent my frustrations, I've just been forced into this stupid tournament when I'd rather be hanging out with friends, getting high marks with schoolwork and maybe even dating someone" Harry subtly looked at one of the group and received a slight blush in response.

The girls shook themselves out of their thoughts with Hermione leading the group and walking towards him with a look of concern.

"Are you sure you're okay? I mean we all saw how you reacted when your name came out of the goblet and the response as you walked up" Hermione asked as she looked into Harry's eyes, trying to find any hint of an untruth.

"Seriously Hermione, I'm going to be alright, I'm already researching what I should do for the first task, would you lovely ladies help in this endeavour?" Harry smiled at the rest of his friends and got smiles with nods in return.

"Excellent, now first off, what in the warp's name does air and fire have to do with the tournament?" Harry looked at each of them in the eyes but smiled slightly when he heard Daphne bring up something he had been meaning to talk to her about soon.

"Uhh Harry, we've heard you say it in the past before but why do you warp instead of merlin like the rest of us?"

"It has to do with what we were going to help teach you if you still wanted it?" Harry questioned them with a raised eyebrow.

Daphne raised her eyebrow in curiosity and turned back to those also who did not know and received nods in response.

"Well we agreed to your offer for both academic and personal reasons and I am not one to back out of an agreement," Daphne said while looking Harry's eye, stating her position of still wanting their offer, with Padma and Lavender stating the same.

As Harry tried to think up a way to describe the warp to someone who did not know of it in the first place, he suddenly remembered that could teach what Tzeentch taught him, all those years ago in his tiny cupboard.

"The warp is what you would call the opposite to reality, the immaterium to materium, you may have noticed that after second year, the colour of my, Hermione and Luna's eyes have changed from what they used to be before, this is because we use the warp, just like we use magic but in a much more effective way"

"Where does it come from? With magic, there are ley lines in the earth that help power magic, you have nature magic and you have natural magic like people born with different abilities," Padma said with growing curiosity.

"Well, it comes from within each and every person on this earth, everyone has the potential for 'good' and 'evil', the warp focusses on the energies that from all the 'evil' acts that people commit in their lives. It is raw emotion and can also be considered the dark reflection of the material universe"

After Harry explained this, the girls' eyes widened slightly as they tried to comprehend the power that was the warp.

"We can teach you to harness the warp and use it to your hearts content, whether it be to seek and learn knowledge towards a path to many abilities some consider to be unnatural," Harry looked at Daphne as he said this.

"Or perhaps for those who find their interests in the more…physical way of life," Hermione looked at the other two.

As the girls requested a few moments to think it over, they walked away separately for a few metres before stopping to think over the offer of using such a power, not knowing they were thinking along similar tracks of thought.

 _Daphne's p.o.v_

'Okay, the pros of using such power: I would be able to keep the purebloods off my back, I would be able to realise one of my dreams and study things that others would keep away from me and also just think of the power I could wield! Slytherins were born for ambition and this is ambition'

'Okay now for the cons: it's supposedly made up of the evil emotions of people, wouldn't that make me evil if I use it? But they have to go somewhere right? Healing can be considered good because it's helping someone get better, this is so frustrating'

 _Lavender's p.o.v_

'Could what they are offering be true? Moreover, could what Hermione is offering be true? I mean I like doing the academic side of stuff but my heart will always be on my beauty, could it really help me attain more?'

 _Padma's p.o.v_

'Parvati's always been considered the more beautiful twin, wouldn't be poetic justice if I became the more beautiful one using this offer, well you know what they say about the shy ones'

 _Back to Normal p.o.v_

As Harry, Hermione and Luna watched the girls' think their thoughts they began to discuss what the first task would be when Luna spoke up with the answer to their question.

"I might know what the first task will be"

"And how my dear, do you know that?" Harry questioned as he turned his body towards her.

"I looked into the warp and I saw the answer"

Harry took a step closer towards Luna with a curious look in his eye as he asked her a simple question.

"And what my little oracle, did you see?"

* * *

 _ **Scene break**_

* * *

Harry was sitting at the back of his Friday afternoon charms class, listening to Professor Flitwick explain the benefits versus the consequences of the banishing charm when the classroom door was knocked upon and opened up to reveal Ginny Weasley.

"Yes, Miss Weasley?" Flitwick said in his ever high-pitched tone.

"Sorry for interrupting sir, but I've been sent to get Harry for the Tournament Judges for something, sorry," Ginny said, apologising to Harry as she saw her friend take a deep breath in in obvious agitation.

"Well, I guess the tournament overrules my classroom, well off you Mr Potter and I'm sure one of your friends can tell you what you missed out on" Flitwick dismissed Harry from the class with Ginny being his guide.

"Don't scare them too much alright?" Neville said with a small laugh as Harry passed him and received a joking pout in return.

As Ginny began to lead her friend to the judge's room, she chose this moment to tell Harry what had been on her mind.

"I don't believe you put your name in Harry because you never did, what type of disloyal friend would I be if I believed the tripe that passed for gossip around here?"

"Thank you, Ginny, also it seems like you've gotten over your crush on me" Harry smirked in enjoyment as Ginny's face reddened in embarrassment.

"Yes, that thing, well after second year dad and I had a talk and he mentioned several things that you said after you rescued me from the chamber, I thought about it over the holidays in between and with Neville's friendship, I'm sorry Harry but I just don't think we could go out" Ginny said, acting a bit solemnly.

Harry looked over at his friend and noticed that she was shaking slightly, obviously trying to hold in her laughter and so he decided to indulge her.

"Oh by the gods my break is broken! Whatever shall I do to get over this heartbreaking moment?" Harry said dramatically as he clutched his chest and spun against the stone wall.

Both Harry and Ginny tried to contain their laughter but failed and roared with laughter for several minutes as they arrived at where the judges were located.

"Listen, Ginny, I'm glad I have your friendship, a raven can always do with a lion at their back, but I think a certain badger might want one more" Harry smirked at her and received an embarrassed one in return.

"W-w-what do you mean?" Ginny stammered as she tried to come up with a response to his words.

"Nothing my dear, just treat him right okay? He's my brother" Harry gave her one last smile as he entered the room and was greeted the sight of the judges, the champions, a woman in acid green clothing and oddly enough, Ollivander.

"Ahh here is our last champion! Come forward Harry and let's let Ollivander work his magical magic" Dumbledore said with a bright smile, obviously tickled pink at his little joke but no one else laughed at it.

Harry bristled slightly at the headmasters continued refusal at Harry's request but had given up after the umpteenth time or something.

"Let us continue onto the wand weighing, Mr Ollivander has graciously given us his time to check your wands functionality, to make sure that there aren't any problems with it and of course, Miss Rita Skeeter is here for the interviews for the Daily Prophet," Bagman said quite joyfully.

Mr Ollivander was situated behind a desk with a set of brass scales and other instruments that a wand maker might have to 'weigh' a wand.

"Well then let's begin, Miss Delacour if you'd please" Ollivander held his palm open for her wand and as he received it, he began to list the qualities of the wand.

"Hmm…rosewood…nine and a half inches…inflexible and…oh my" Ollivander remarked as Fleur puffed up slight as she answered his unasked question.

"Eet iz an 'air from a Veela, from my grandmother," Fleur said proudly as Ollivander cast a spell with her wand and several doves sprung out of it.

"Mr Krum, you next" Ollivander said with a genial smile and was handed the wand.

"Hmm…Hornbeam…ten and a quarter inch…rigid…dragon heartstring but it's certainly not one of mine"

"It is a Gregorovitch make," Krum drawled in his Bulgarian tone of voice.

"Well to each their own I suppose" Ollivander made a brilliant light shine from the end of Krum's wand and let him go without a fuss as Cedric was next.

"Ahh Mr Diggory, I remember when you came into my store with a bright smile and now look at you, still have that bright smile about you, now, Ash…twelves and a quarter inches…pleasantly springy…unicorn hair" Ollivander flicked Cedric's wand and a rainbow appeared over his head and handed the wand back to Cedric.

"Now for you Mr Potter," Ollivander half said, half-whispered as he was handed Harry's wand.

As Ollivander looked over the wand for any imperfections on it, he began to say the qualities of the wand, just as he did for the others.

"Willow…thirteen inches…dragon heartstring…unyielding, I daresay Mr Potter that if someone tried to use your wand, they would find themselves in quite for the shock" Mr Ollivander said with a small wink as a burst of wine surged from Harry's wand.

"Everything is in order Headmaster; may I take my leave now?" Dumbledore bade Ollivander a goodbye and suddenly Harry's ears were filled with a sickly sweet voice.

"Well then, time for the interviews I think and then a big picture of everyone, let's start with you Mr Potter," Miss Skeeter grabbed Harry's arm with increasing grip, which didn't leave Harry any chance of getting out but stopped her dead in her tracks with his response.

"Take your hand off me, before I take it off myself"

Everyone in the room halted what they were doing as they looked on incredulously at their situation and continued to watch for anything else.

Skeeter sputtered for a few moments before regaining her sickly sweet composure.

"Come now Harry dear, it's just a small interview, nothing wrong with that" again, Skeeter tried to take the two of them away for the interview when Harry spoke again, but this time in a deadly, no-nonsense tone.

"You will remove your hand from my arm Miss Skeeter, or I promise you, I will take it off along with making you regret ever trying it," Harry glared at her with a withering gaze and Skeeter flinched violently at his eyes, turning away and looking back towards the other champions.

" _ **Puny little bug**_ " Harry agreed with his patron's comment and waited until Skeeter released his arm.

It took Skeeter several minutes to regain her normal composure after looking into Harry's gaze and when she did, there was but a hint of a stutter still in her voice from the sheer terror that she felt from what she saw.

"W-well, let's carry on s-shall we?"

As the other champions and their headmasters/mistress all had their pictures taken and interviews were taken, Harry was not included in any of them, only mentioned as he did neither picture nor interview as he had left the room with a stifling air in the room.

* * *

 _ **Scene break**_

* * *

"Hey, Potty!"

Harry stopped and when he spun around slowly, he saw that standing behind him with several other students was Malfoy Junior, puffing his chest out like a strutting peacock.

"How do you like the badges, Potter? We made them especially for you" Malfoy pressed the badge on his chest and Harry watched as it turned from 'Support Cedric Diggory' to 'Potter sucks'.

Harry only raised an eyebrow at the badge and sighed before replying.

"Malfoy you have the guile of a three-year-old and the intelligence of the same age, you think those little badges annoy me? Hardly. I have had much worse things done to my person and it wasn't from you Slytherins, even the Puffs have more cunning from their actions in second year."

"You always try something new, don't you?

At Harry's words, Malfoy and his little gang of associates bristled in anger at being compared to the house of 'duffers'.

"How dare you compare those of the noble house of Slytherin to those pathetic duffers, the only thing they're good for is target practice" Malfoy sneered.

"And yet one of their numbers is the champion for Hogwarts, says a lot about their house and Slytherin doesn't it, you little pest? Now go away Malfoy before I show the lot of you why I am considered the top student." Harry's eyes glowed darkly as the Slytherins ran away in panic.

' _You know what? Screw class, I need to get some things ready for tonight'_ Harry thought to himself as he turned around quickly and began to walk back to a region of the castle where none could interrupt him.

* * *

 _ **Scene break**_

* * *

Under the cover of the midnight darkness, a hooded figure walked through the dark growth that was called the forbidden forest.

Further and further the figure walked, never looking around him for he knew he was safe lest the creature attacked them chose to end its own life by interrupting him.

Even though the figure didn't physically look around, they knew that they were being watched by creatures of unspeakable terror, creatures that would only follow the strongest of the strong and sometimes those who proved they were chosen to lead.

Slowly walking to a clearing that the figure chose was ample size for the confrontation that was about to happen, the figure waited for several moments before they heard the multiple dull thuds of heavy steps around them and also staying in the shadows to watch.

After the last thud sounded, the figure and none of the creatures that were hidden moved an inch, lest they are perceived weak to the opposing side.

For several more minutes, neither side moved and it was at that time the figure in the clearing chose to speak to the creatures that chose to hide.

"Well this isn't surprising, is it? Hiding in the shadows when an intruder comes into your territory. Well, what can you expect from beasts? Or is it something else that stays your charge? I can feel you in the shadows shaman, you know the will of the dark gods, well I am the will of a dark god so show yourselves!"

As the figure shouted the last word, a loud roar came from behind the figure and from the shadows of the woods, came a roaring, charging half-breed of a creature that stood on two legs but had a head with goat-like features.

The figure in the middle turned immediately before the beast hit them and with a scream that pierced the darkness around them, a appeared the hand of the figure and cleaved the beast in half as if it was nothing.

As the carcass of the beast fell in front of the figure, two beasts slowly walked out of the shadows and stopped in front of the smaller figure.

The smaller figure looked studied the two beasts in front of him and decided that they would certainly serve his interests and future plans.

The beast to the right was almost three times the figures height with a muscle mass that could rival weightlifting champions and dark red eyes that did nothing but glare at anyone and anything that gained its ire.

But the beast on the left was smaller than the other beast but unlike the other, this beast had two different colour sets in its eyes and was holding a crudely made staff, with some bone material tied around the top of it.

Before the obvious leaders of the two sides could speak, the beast with staff began to speak in guttural tones with surprisingly enough, English words while indicating at the smaller figure.

 _ **"Khorhs, Dhorh and Dhous feel from you, why here?"**_

The smaller figure stood silent for a few moments before stating the reason they were there.

"For the creation of an alliance."

The shaman repeated the words for the beasts leader and received few guttural grunts in return.

 _ **"Why friend with beasts?"**_

"Look into my eyes and open yourself to the will of the dark gods shaman and you will find out." The figure responded and with a small tilt of their head, gazed into the dual coloured eyes of the shaman and surrendered themselves to the power of Chaos.

The leader of the beasts and those still in the shadows watched as their shaman and the small figure stood still for what seemed like an eternity but when they finished, the shaman began frantically indicating to the small figure in rushed tones.

 _ **"Furhorhs dhous! Lurht Tchen!"**_

The two beasts continued for a few more moments before turning back to the figure with a more amenable look about them.

"Now that that has been concluded, this is what I wish for."

After a few more hours of discussion between the two groups, the smaller figure left the clearing with a smile that could've sent grown men running and darkly shining blue eyes.

"Be it the will of the dark gods."

* * *

 _ **Now that the trio of girls have been offered the chance of utilising the warp, will they accept the offer? Will they refuse? It seems that Ginny has gotten over her crush of Harry ad moved onto someone else, will something become of it? Now that Harry has refused Miss Skeeter, will his refusal come back to haunt him? Will it prove a blessing in disguise? Moreover, just who or what are the mysterious things that Harry wants found with the help of these new beasts? Find out next time on The Affliction!**_

 **AN1: I'm posting the double chapters because I kinda spoiled it by mucking up.**

 _ **Give it a good read, possibly even give a review as they are always welcome and it tells me if you're liking the story and you have yourself a very good day :)**_


	8. Chapter 7 - The First Task (Part One)

_**AN: Listening to metal remixes of classic Disney songs is a sure interesting listen.**_

 _ **Several things: I apologize for not uploading in sometime, school has started back up and it now dominates most of my time but I'll do my best to get time in for this amazing website.**_

 _ **Also I'm going to make things easier of the both of us for future chapters:**_

" **Dark Tongue speech" (which includes the Beast Tongue)**

" _ **Dark Gods Speech"**_

"Normal speech"

" _Thoughts"_

* * *

Chapter 7 – **The First Task (Part One)**

* * *

 _*This is the fourth attack in the past several days that have baffled the police and the government as to why they have been happening. Here with me now is Chief Inspector Daniels with more details."_

 _"Well what we are allowed to share with the public is that even though it seems as terrorism, this is most certainly not the case if we examine the what is left over; hoof prints the size of a normal man's boot surrounding and in the area, barbaric markings written on the walls and most distressful of all, some sort of effigy or altar as if the perpetrators were somewhat religious. All I can offer to the public is sincere asking that they stay safe and hope that this is the last of the attacks." *_

* * *

Several days after the Weighing of the Wands, Harry and Luna were discussing the finer points of his plan when the morning owl post arrived which signalled many eyebrows being raised over Harry's words and actions that were reported by the reported.

"Oi Potter! I always knew you were a dark wizard, promising to hurt people."

Harry turned around slightly and noticed that a majority of the great hall were looking and listening in when he realised that someone was speaking to him.

"Oh Weasley I didn't see you there, what do you promising to hurt people?" Harry queried with a raised eyebrow and so Hermione handed him the morning paper to show him.

' _ **TRI-WIZARD TOURNAMENT SNUB!'**_

 _ **By Rita Skeeter**_

 _When we think of the Tri-Wizard, we think of a grand tournament with three contestants, fighting for fame and glory for their chosen schools._

 _However, not today, no, for today is a sad day as the Tri-Wizard tournament has been sullied by a vicious attempt at a vainglorious attempt by a glory hound with delusions of grandeur._

 _As many readers know, the Tri-Wizard tournament has been reopened and is now being held at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry, but this year there are not three contestants, but FOUR._

 _Yes, you heard me right my dear readers; there are four contestants in the Tri-Wizard tournament instead of three._

 _The fourth contestant for the tournament is none other than Harry Potter himself!_

 _Mr Potter has somehow been illegally entered the revered Tri-Wizard tournament, whether it be by some miracle of magic or some nefarious magic._

 _Being the faithful reporter I am, I attempted to gain an interview with Mr Potter at the weighing of the wands ceremony but as I attempted to initiate one, he only had this to say:_

" _You will remove your hand from my arm Miss Skeeter, or I promise you, I will take it off along with the other one" – Harry Potter aged 14_

 _Is this the kind of response we want from a champion of Hogwarts?_

 _Is this the kind of response we want our children to have when they want to meet the fabled Boy-Who-lived when they arrive at Hogwarts?_

The article continued on for a few more paragraphs, giving different reasons on how Harry could've entered the tournament and why but he just ignored them as he turned his attention back to Weasley, whose face had turned a bright red from Harry ignoring him.

"Listen and listen well Weasley, yes I did threaten Skeeter of taking her arms off because she demanded I go with her to gods knows where to conduct an 'interview' and so I did what anyone else would do in that situation, but everything else is a lie," Harry said a low voice as he thought about that woman.

"See! You just gave us proof that you are willing to hurt people!" Weasley cried out, seeing several heads nod along with him.

"Oh so defending yourself is considered evil now? Thanks for clearing that up Weasley," Neville spat at him.

"You stay out of this Longbottom! You're just as dark as he is."

"No he is not Ronald and if you took the time to talk to them you'd see that they're completely the opposite," said Ginny, surprising many people as she came to Neville's defence.

"Ginny, how could you? He's just as dark as Potter is," Weasley began to sputter in embarrassment as his sister's defence of one of the people he hated.

The great hall watched the two Weasleys go back and forth before the Weasley twins came between them and broke the argument with each other them making the other go to separate places.

After the Weasley argument finished, Harry turned back to his own conversations when Hermione politely interrupted their conversation with queries of the first task.

"So do you have a plan Harry?"

Harry looked Hermione with slight amusement and placated his sister's concerns.

"I'm just going over the find details of the plan right now with Luna Hermione, don't worry, I've got this."

"I know you do but can I please know it? Please please please?" Harry only laughed Hermione's incessant wanting to know, some of her old personality returning but he refused to tell her and left her pouting.

Harry went back to conversing with Luna for several more minutes before Luna brought up the subject of the first task.

"Shouldn't you let Cedric know about what's to come about in the first task?"

Harry looked at her strangely for a second before he responded.

"And why should I do that? He has done nothing to stop his friends and housemates from wearing those pathetic badges, and besides, the more knowledge I have the better."

"Well think of it this way; just give him a note saying what it is and don't sign it, lead him into finding out and if he doesn't believe it, bad luck for him."

" _ **She is right my champion, give him the information he seeks without any acknowledgement and let him deal with the consequences"**_

' _Then let us hope he is wise enough to understand the threat level.'_ Harry thought back to his patron as he grabbed a small piece of parchment from his robes, wrote down what the first task would be with a message and sent it off on its journey with a wave of his wand.

* * *

 **Scene break**

* * *

When Cedric walked into the great hall and sat down for breakfast, he didn't expect the hostility and sea of raised eyebrows directed towards a certain Ravenclaw but when one of his friends passed him the morning Daily Prophet, he immediately understood why as he thought back to the Wand Weighing.

What he did notice was that more people were wearing those badges that were rumoured to be designed by Draco Malfoy but he obviously denied such making, bringing with him airtight alibis so he could not get into trouble.

As he was about to speak up about the article, Ron Weasley chose this moment, once again, to show his ignorance at some other person personality.

"Seriously why haven't the teacher's done something about him?" a boy to Cedric's right said softly.

"Probably because right now it is just all talk, only when it becomes violence and wands are drawn will they come down and do something, kind of sad really," the girl across from the boy said in an equally soft voice.

When Cedric heard Harry retort, his face paled slightly from the level of darkness he said it with but his thoughts were interrupted by Neville, his own housemate speaking up to defend him and was called dark in retaliation, just for defending his friend.

Cedric and his group of friends watched as Ginny Weasley entered the verbal fray and the Weasley argument came to a head when their older brothers had to separate them and send them off to opposite parts of the table.

He looked back towards Potter and saw that he had gone back to the conversation he was having with his friends but when he looked down, he noticed a small piece of parchment sitting in front of him on the table.

"Hey Ced, what's that?" one of Cedric's friends asked as they watched Cedric notice the parchment and pick it up.

"I have no idea, but let's see what it says shall we?" Cedric slowly opened the parchment up, slightly wary if came from the Weasley twins again but saw it only had ten words on it, certainly not, what he expected from a note.

' _First task is dragons, do with it what you will'_

Cedric's face paled dramatically as the puzzle pieces from the clues came falling into place.

Cedric's friends saw his face pale rapidly and became quite concerned when he quickly got up, with parchment in hand, and almost ran out of the great hall.

"I wonder what got his wand all twisted in a knot."

* * *

 **Scene break**

* * *

Many miles away, in the quiet recesses of a school library, Sarah Cavanagh sat surrounded by her friends, both male and female to discuss the latest piece of news that she had received from her friend.

"So what is he going to do?" one of Sarah's friends asked from her left.

"Even though I have known him for much less than a year, I know he'll overcome it. The will of his patron will see him through the tasks of their tournament, he has allies there that will help him both magically and sorcery wise, but what really interests me is the last part of his message." Sarah said as she took the letter from out of her bag to show her friends.

"What does it say?"

Sarah looked over it several times to make sure that it said what she thought it said and looked back to her friends.

"It says: _find me a place that can be easily accessed but not to those with ill intent, a place that is spacious but not tucked away completely hidden from site._ "

Sarah looked around the table at her friends and nodded her head in agreement at what her friends were thinking.

"Yes he is certainly being cryptic about it, he either wants a large warehouse in the warehouse district or he wants a completely different building that ca be used by the public but not by people who with harmful intent, just great." Sarah threw her arms up in bafflement at her friend's words and the table went silent in their thoughts.

Several minutes later, as one of the members of the table decided to stand up and walk around for help with their thinking, their eye was caught by a slightly dilapidated building, easily seen from a good distance away but hidden in plain sight due to its state.

"How about that building over there? It fits the description perfectly; easily hidden but public, no one really has used that type of building with ill intent and it looks spacious enough that it's practically thought of that it's a requirement for a building like that to have that much space," her friend's words made a lot of sense as the group began to think about it in a logistical sense.

"If we're gonna do this, then we'll need help and it just so happens that Harry has a friend who has a group just like this, doing this will show our commitment and our loyalty to them," Sarah said with a firm conviction and smiled in response as her friends said the same thing right back at her.

As they began to finish their small meeting, they recited what had somewhat become their end of meeting phrase.

"Be it the will of the dark gods."

* * *

 **Scene break**

* * *

The day for the first task came and with it, just a normal feeling day for Harry.

He knew what he was going to face, he knew his plan would work; yet, he could not help but feel as if today were a normal day at Hogwarts.

"Mr Potter…Harry, it's time," Professor Flitwick's grave sound came from behind him as he finished eating.

"Professor Flitwick please, you make it sound like I'm going to my death or something." Harry scoffed lightly as he got up to follow his second favourite teacher.

As the duo walked towards the arena at a leisurely pace, if not for one of them to keep their walk a treasured memory, numerous students, mostly Slytherins and Gryffindors, shouted out that they hoped Harry would fail and lose but he paid them no notice.

"Harry, whatever happens in the arena today, know that I am and always will be proud of having you as my student, your mother would extremely proud to see how far you've come if she were here with us, then again, she might've shouted our heads off is she saw what has happened to you," Flitwick said with a laugh.

The duo lightly laughed at the professor's joke but either way, Harry agreed with what his head of house said and warmth lit up his body at hearing his words.

"Thank you, professor, you've always been my favourite Hogwarts teacher, and nothing can change that." Flitwick smiled sadly at his young pupil's words and led him towards the champion's tent.

"In here Harry, and good luck my boy," after that Flitwick left Harry to the champions tent who did not feel at all annoyed at the usage of 'my boy'.

Harry entered the tent to see the Judges and the champions all in their separate areas when Bagman tried to pull Harry forwards into the group but stopped when he received a glare that he did not want to admit but it terrified him.

"W-w-well now that we're all here, we can begin, gather round champions, now in this bag are the obstacles that you will be facing for you to collect the golden egg, which will have your next clue for the second task in it." Bagman seemed to get even more excited as he continued to speak.

"Now, ladies first," Bagman held the bag for Fleur to take an obstacle and out from the bag, clutched her hand was a Common Welsh Green Dragon with a number two around its tiny neck.

"Mr Diggory, you next," Cedric repeated Fleur's actions and out came a Swedish Short-Snout with a number one around its neck.

"Mr Krum, if you'd please." Viktor almost shoved his hand into the bag and in his hand was a Chinese Fireball with a three around its neck.

"Which leaves only you Mr Potter." Harry lowered his hand into the bag with a small smirk directed at the other champions and from the bag he drew a Hungarian Horntail, which made the headmasters/mistress wincing in pity.

"Now as you can see from the miniatures, out in the arena, there are life-sized versions of them and they will be the obstacles that will defend the golden egg against you, once you get the egg, it contains the clue to the next task and it is your job to unravel it," and with that he bade the champions good luck and left with the other judges.

As the champions withdrew to their respective areas, Harry grabbed his chair and dropped it in front of Cedric with a smirk on his face.

"Did the note help?"

Cedric's face froze for several moments before his eyes widened significantly and sputtered out a few words.

"It was you! But how?"

"I have my ways Cedric, just as these other two have theirs," Harry turned back to Fleur and Viktor and glared at them for he knew just how they came to know what they would be facing.

With immense satisfaction, Harry saw that both champions flinched slightly at his words and glare before turning away and focussing on their own dragons.

"Look in all seriousness, I'm not going to leave a Hogwarts brother to hang out in the dry without help, just good luck with your dragon" and with that final word, Harry left Cedric to prepare and focus on what needed to be done before he went out.

* * *

 **Scene break**

* * *

After hearing and listening to his competitor's successful attempts at engaging their dragons and successfully gaining their golden eggs, it took twenty minutes for the next dragon to be forced into the arena whereas the other had only taken around seven and a half.

"Now ladies and gentleman, now fighting against the Hungarian Horntail, last but not least, your fourth champion Mr Harry Potter!" Bagman shouted aloud with obvious glee.

As Harry listened to Bagman shout his name, with dark glee, sent a mental pulse through the warp, towards the bray-shaman of the beastmen that he had recruited, and walked out into the arena.

* * *

 **Scene break**

* * *

Far across the Scottish countryside, in a dense forest where one could even get lost in should they lose their way, lay the first, and quite possibly the only Warherd of beastmen in the Scottish countryside.

As the beastmen waited for something to happen, the lead Bray-Shaman sat knelt in front of an altar, waiting and listening for the signal that the champion had given him.

As his mind drifted throughout the energies of the warp, a glaring signal hit his mind that sent him spiralling back into his body.

" **The champion has given his command and so the warherd shall follow"**

The bray-shaman spoke to theWargor of the herd and so in the dark recesses of the forest, a loud cacophony of braying like sounds rang into the afternoon air, ringing true and far, all the way to the outer edges of the forest where it frightened several herds of sheep and left an uneasy feeling in the air.

* * *

 _ **What plan has Harry and Luna come up with to combat what he has to in the first task? Will it succeed? Will there be any more backlashes from Skeeter when he unveils his plan? Will Cedric be grateful and help Harry in return for his help for the first task? Now that Harry has publically seen what he has to face, what exactly will he do to come out on top against the most dangerous dragon of the four? Find out next time on The Affliction!**_

 **Give it a good read, possibly even give a review as they are always welcome and it tells me if you're liking the story and you have yourself a very good day :)**


	9. Chapter 8 - The First Task (Part Two)

_**AN: I've got nothing for this chapter folks.**_

 **BROMBROS:** Unfortunately, there are going to chapters that some will think end in disappointment, it can't always be action action action, plus I didn't know how to end it so I did the best I could.

 **Moonreaper666:** Yes, they shall them, but most probably later on, and that is a very good question. They probably would be crazy enough but then again I'm not bagging on their nationality.

* * *

Chapter 8 – **The First Task (Part Two)**

Clad in a dark blue and bronze sleeveless cloak, Harry slowly walked out of the champion's tent to a rocky type arena, with large boulders all around with the dragon's nest in the very middle of the arena.

' _Time to give them a taste of my power'_ Harry thought as he began to feel the power from the sacrificial ritual beginning to fill his body with raw power.

" _This_ is what this farce of a first task is? Facing an overgrown lizard that wouldn't even be fit to join the cabal of high daemons of **Khorne himself!** " Harry shouted as his voice began to take on a deeper and echoed tone.

' _ **RRROOOAAARRR!'**_

Harry looked at the Hungarian Horntail with disdain as he was washed over with the dragon's breath from its roar.

"You **honestly** think because of my **forced inclusion** into this farce, that I will **break** in front of this **lizard** as if I were water on rocks?! **The will of the dark gods is unbreakable!** You all think that because of my age that I'll fail because of my magical education not being the same as my competition? _**I'll show you my education!**_ "

Harry deftly rolled out of the way of the large tail spike that the now suddenly visible mother dragon whipped at him and chose to hide behind a large boulder to keep himself alive before he implemented the plan.

"What's the matter Potter? Scared of finally dying?" Malfoy laughed out from the stands as the surrounding students laughed along with him but received heated glares from the side supporting Harry.

Hermione, Luna and Neville watched as Harry dodged fire blast after fire blast, hiding behind rock after rock but he did not seem to be doing anything besides those two things.

"Luna, you know what he has planned, what he is waiting for?" Neville asked as they watched Harry dodge a much closer fire blast.

"They all think he is weak due to him being a fourth year, they have underestimated him severely and it begins now," Luna's eyes lit up with delight as the air around the arena suddenly grew heavy with a feeling of raw power.

* * *

 _ **Scene break**_

* * *

Just before Harry had entered the arena, the other champions entered the judge's box to watch the last of the champions compete and to watch how he would defeat his dragon.

As Harry was saying his piece, almost everyone in the crowd were silently whispering with their friend's as to what Harry was talking about but none more so than the other champions.

"Diggory, vhat exactly do you think Potter vas talking about?" Viktor's rough voice cut through Cedric's thoughts as he considered Viktor's words.

"That is certainly the question, isn't it? Sure Harry has always been a bit strange but that's due to his intelligence, he is always number one in his year level with also him being the most knowledgeable about magic in his year as well. This is the first time I've ever heard him speak about gods or demons, be they light or dark." Cedric's words had only abated the champions concerns somewhat as Fleur chose to ask Cedric about her thoughts.

"What exactly do you zink Monsieur Potter will do?" Fleur asked Cedric as they watched Harry dodge another fire blast. **(AN1)**

Cedric winced slightly as the next blast of fire looked a little too close to home but answered Fleur as best as he could.

"Well, as I said, Harry has always been smart; top student of his year and is very resourceful. He has friends in other houses so they've probably helped him but I can't honestly tell you what I think, we all had slight troubles with our dragons but Harry is a fourth year but with how he looking now, _something_ is about to happen." Cedric told Fleur as honestly as he could as they continued to watch Harry move faster than the dragons fire could hit him.

"Vhat is Potter vaiting for?" Viktor asked openly as the other two noticed as what Viktor had seen.

When the blasts stopped, they noticed Harry begin to breathe slowly, as if taking his time with something and felt the air around them grow heavy and thick, as if something was about to happen.

* * *

 _ **Scene break**_

* * *

Down in the arena, Harry felt the last vestiges of the ritual dissipate as he opened himself up to the warp and the energies came rushing into his very being.

" _ **Concentrate boy, feel the energies bend to your whim."**_

The words of his teacher kept his mind focussed on what he wanted to happen and when he gathered the energies around him, he shot his wand out towards the dragon and with a clap of thunder, barbed metal chains burst through the rock of the arena and began to wrap themselves around the legs of the dragon, releasing rivers of blood to drip to the ground with cries of pain being released from the beast.

" _ **You think that I am weak and breakable, the will of Tzeentch shall prove you false!"**_

In the stands, nearly every single person watched in morbid fascination at seeing the most dangerous dragon on the planet subdued by the barbed chains that came from the ground but to their surprise, more was coming.

Harry was on the move as he took the moment of the distraction to summon several daemons and ordered them to distract the dragon even further, but not to kill it.

He watched as the daemons whirled away, cackling all the while and as he got into the position that gave the best view of the dragon and egg, he began his own ritual.

The crowd watched as the dragon tried to fight back against the chains by ripping them off with its teeth, only to cause itself more injuries and was stopped by the daemons, who kept its head moving from side to side, spitting fire at them to try to kill them.

In the span of half a minute, Harry's eyes turned a pure bright blue as he brought his hands close together as sparks of lightning began to crackle back and forth, bringing attention from the crowd onto the display.

The crowd watched as the sparks became fully formed arcs of lightning that began to arc around Harry's hand and as they watched him launch them into the sky, the sky above them turned dark with ink coloured clouds that rumbled with threatening tones.

As the clouds began to shadow over everyone, the rumbling came to a crescendo when the area became a deathly silent, the only thing that made noise was the dragon, who continued to try to end the threat of the horrors to its nest.

"What's going to happen Luna?" Hermione asked her friend as she slowly turned her head towards the heavens and with a small smile that graced her face, she replied to her friend.

"The beginning of the end."

Just as Luna replied to her Hermione, the clouds above started to rumble again, but this time, the rumbles had much more strength to them and with each rumble, the crowd in the arena could physically feel the stands shake slightly at power from above.

Luna clapped her hands and giggled like an eight-year-old girl looking at her favourite toy as her friend started the plan as he tied the dragon down with the chains of torment, summoned several horrors to distract it and brought down the fire of the sky.

Like an alpha lion accepting a challenge from a challenger, the dragon reared its head and let out a roar of anger at the puny meat bag that was irritating it.

The crowd watched as the dragon drew in a breath and with a strength only a dragon could manage, released a long plume of _intense_ dragon fire towards the fourth champion.

The crowd watched as the dragon fire, which couldn't be dodged or blocked at the proximity at it was, streak towards the young champion and to the _**immense**_ horror of the crowd, Harry's form seemed to disappear when a brighter, more pinkish fire sprung up from the ground and combated the fire of the dragon.

The crowd continued to watch as the new pink tinted fire combated the dragon fire but their attention was quickly diverted when the rumbling in the sky grew almost too much to bear, lightning began to shoot across the sky, arcing left to right, forward to behind, all across the sky the lightning streaked across the sky but after a few minutes they all gathered around a single spot.

Even the dragon's attention was distracted by the rumbling in the clouds, thus letting the dragon fire stop and as both fires died out, several individuals of the crowd noticed that the fourth champion was still standing tall, looking healthy but with a dangerous gleam in his eyes as they shone its icy glow.

You could almost hear the imaginary gladiatorial drum beat as the young mage raised his left arm with his palm outstretched and to the shock and horror to the majority of the crowd, the collected lightning gathered _in his hand_ with small arcs shooting off his body, showing them that the power he held was nothing they had ever seen before.

" _ **Your fate has been decided.**_ **"**

The crowd could barely hear what he said but they clearly understood its meaning when the air around them grew heavy and the young champion slowly walked until he was standing directly in front of the Hungarian Horntail.

As the lightning finished gathering in his left hand, Harry raised his right arm and with his fingers splayed out, let the full force of the power he held in his left-hand streak towards the dragon in several arcing bolts.

The crowd watched as Harry released the pent power in several arcs of blue, pink and purple lightning at the dragon and watched as the dragon screeched out in agonising pain as it felt the power of the sky combined with the ruinous power of the warp.

As each arc of warp lightning streaked towards the dragon, they hit it with enough force to it to its knees and with its head on the ground, all the while screeching in pain as the crowd watched as part of the dragon started to smoke then partly wither away, leaving the dragon breathing heavily as it tried to lift its wings, only to show that the leathery membrane was completely gone, scorched or burnt away it did not matter to them, only that the dragon was barely breathing, looked more dead than alive but still hanging on.

With slow, methodical breaths, Harry walked a slow pace towards where the dragon lay, wheezing in pain with every breath and barely moved when Harry walked in front of its snout.

The crowd watched as Harry calmly placed his hand upon the dragon snout and thought that he was possibly apologizing for what he had done but was proved wrong when his hand glowed a bright purple and the entirety of the dragon became alight in the bright glare of the fire.

For several moments, the crowd watched as the fire began to die down to reveal nothing but the empty space that the dragon had just recently occupied and a few piles of ashes where the dragon wings used to be.

After turning away from the now empty space, Harry began to walk towards the middle of the arena where the golden egg lay and with a small smile, picked it up with a slight narrowing of his eyes but shrugged his shoulders at it.

Harry calmly walked over the jagged rocks and when he stopped in front of the golden egg, he picked it up with a small smirk, turned towards the judge's box, and gave them a mocking bow.

"Task complete."

"W-w-well, t-t-that was certainly a…interesting success…n-n-now for the s-s-scores?" the stutters in Bagman's voice could easily be heard as the faces of the judges were still stuck in with jaws wide open.

"Judges?"

The prompting from Bagman shook them out of their stupor as they began to give Harry their scores.

Madame Maxine held her wand up and out from her wand came an elegantly styled zero.

Karkaroff snapped his wand up and shot out a red one, which in turn made some of the crowd boo at his decision.

Dumbledore held his wand up and shot out a one as well with narrowed eyes at Harry, to which Harry responded with a grin that could be described as slightly insane.

In the end, both Bagman and Crouch gave Harry a 3 each, putting Harry last behind Fleur, Cedric, and Viktor.

At the end of the judge's scores, Harry turned away from the judge's box and just before he re-entered the champion's tent, he banished the still cackling horrors back to the warp and then he disappeared into the tent.

* * *

 _ **Scene break**_

* * *

When Harry entered the tent, he immediately collapsed onto the bed in his designated area with a quiet ' _oomph_ '.

While he was lying face first on the bed, Madam Pomfrey interrupted his thoughts with a request.

"Mr Potter if you'd be so kind as to roll over so I can examine you for any injuries please?"

With a slight groan of exhaustion, he rolled over to let Pomfrey work her magic when his friends, including those from the other houses, entered the tent to congratulate him but stopped suddenly when Harry felt blood dripping from his nose.

"Well Mr Potter it seems you're completely healthy besides your blood nose, just put some cloth on it and it should go away soon, also a lowering in magical power but that can be attributed to what your display out there in the arena, but by my estimates you're healthy and you don't need a stay in my hospital wing."

"You managed to do it, Harry, I daresay you managed to get top spot with that performance," Luna said as she hugged him to convey her happiness at his success.

"Have you ever doubted me, my dear Luna?" Harry asked and got a smiling negative in return.

"Thank you Madame Pomfrey" Harry smiled at the nurse and after she exited the tent, he groaned and collapsed back onto the bed with a piece of cloth covering his nose.

"I have never used that much power before and I am exhausted from it."

"You'll need that cheery disposition of yours in the next task, the others and the public will be clamouring for something to be done about you since you killed the dragon" Daphne smirked at her friend's condition but still sent across her slight worry for him.

After letting Harry recover his strength for a few minutes, he decided that it was time to go back up to the castle with his friends in tow when people started to whisper at him, point at him and send glares over at him.

"So because I defended myself against a giant lizard, they believe that I did the wrong thing?" Harry stated with a face of small rage after the thirty-eighth person glared at him as if he were their hated enemy.

"Well do remember brother, the populace will believe anything they read in the newspaper and believe something completely different when they see something that contradicts it right in front of them, only those with logic would know better" Neville said with a small sneer as one of the Gryffindors that came from the anti-Harry camp spat an insult at them.

* * *

 _ **Scene break**_

* * *

Inside the castle, a single professor was watching the grounds outside, looking for a single student but when they found him, their face scrunched up with an angry sneer.

' _The power that you showed belongs solely to my master, and when you meet him, you shall know the error of attempting to go above your station and struck down for the betterment of all wizard kind'_

* * *

 _ **Now that Harry has shown the three schools what he can do, will the students try to make amends and attempt to get to know him? Or will they act as they have done and continue to shun him and believe him to be a liar and cheater? Why did Dumbledore give Harry a low score with narrowed eyes? Does he know what Harry wields? Find out next time on The Affliction!**_

 **AN1:** I apologize if the French is not that good, I cannot do a French accent even with writing, I suck at it, so again I apologize for it and I will try to make it believable in future chaps.

 **Give it a good read, possibly even give a review as they are always welcome and it tells me if you're liking the story and you have yourself a very good day :)**


	10. Chapter 9 - Backlash & Initiates

_**AN: What I don't get is why people put so much emphasis on the chicken and the egg when really if that egg has a little living chick in it, keep it and breed chickens! Simples economics peoples!**_

 **Moonreaper666:** Spellwork, creativity, and flair and yes he got that because of what he did the dragon.

 **BROMBROS:** Well really it's what he perceives as dark magic, of course he doesn't really know what it is that Harry used so he thinks it's dark magic.

 **Jean-Ray:** No don't worry, the story isn't dead, I love writing this too much but it's down to writer's block and schooling that's delayed an update and it's good to hear that you love reading the story.

* * *

Chapter 9 – **Backlash & Initiates**

The morning after the first task, no one was surprised when the morning Daily Prophet was considered a 'special edition' due to the circumstances of what occurred during Harry's test.

 _ **DARK MAGICS AND DEATH AT WORK AT TRI-WIZARD TOURNAMENT?**_

 _By Rita Skeeter_

 _It was meant to be a trial of daring, wits and bravery._

 _Yet there was one champion, who conquered the task not by using his daring by dodging around the dragon no._

 _He did not use his wits by attempting to outsmart the dragon and confuse it._

 _He did not even attempt to use his bravery by meeting the dragon head on._

 _Harry Potter, the fourth Tri-Wizard Champion beat the dragon and collected the golden egg by utilising the power of the sky itself, then using this power against the poor dragon to murder such a magnificent creature._

 _How, by Merlins sacred name could a_ mere _fourth year be able to summon up enough magical power to even_ attempt _at trying to use the power of the weather itself and when used against the dragon, it was made to torture the dragon and then kill the dragon!_

 _How could an illegal participant and a fourth year, with average magical power and grades, be able to do this without anyone knowing the reason why?_

 _Not only did he use this trick to beat the dragon down when it was only defending its nest, he even used his magic to KILL the poor defenceless creature and take satisfaction in it when he received his scores._

 _Not only did he torture this poor beast, but after the poor beast stopped screeching in pain, Potter stalked up to the downed beast and made it disappear completely in front of the audience, with naught but ash in its place._

 _Well my faithful readers, I put this theory forth to you; Potter is not this amazingly light wizard some of us grew up idolizing and we all believe him to be, no, to get this amount of power so quickly is only accessible through one method: dark magical rituals._

 _Yes my dear readers you it right, Harry Potter may be using dark rituals to increase his power to compensate for his lack of experience and magical power in this tournament._

 _Why hasn't something been done to stop this dark wizard from harming our children further with displays of dark magic? Why hasn't Dumbledore done something about it?_

The article went on to almost demand that Dumbledore, as the headmaster of the school, interrogate him about the so-called 'dark rituals' that he had been performing and the Ministry of Magic to arrest him for the murder of such a defenceless dragon.

As the students took in the words of the daily prophet and its reporter, Harry and his group of friends only looked at the paper with its words and gave them a look of disgust.

"Really? Dark rituals? That is the best they can come up with, why would I need to use dark rituals to give myself more magical power? Moreover, a _mere_ fourth year? Keep thinking that you idiots." Harry sneered at the paper as he flicked his wand and set the paper alight on the table.

As the students watched Harry burn the paper with a look of disgust, they watched in silence as Professor Flitwick walked down from the head table to whisper a few words to Harry, who after hearing them, sighed deeply and glared at the table before getting up to leave the hall, leaving the students to descend into whispers about him.

* * *

 _ **Scene break**_

* * *

"You wanted to see me, headmaster?" Harry said in an emotionless voice.

"Ah yes Harry my boy, please sit down." Dumbledore had a pleased face on him as Harry, once again, requested that a position of non-familiarity be between the two but again Dumbledore did not listen.

"I would prefer to stand headmaster, it helps to keep my senses alert," Harry continued to speak in his emotionless voice as the headmaster looked at him with slight disappointment.

"Come now Harry, why would you need to do that? You're completely safe in this room, now onto the topic of why I asked you here today; Miss Skeeters article."

Silence reigned in the room as neither spoke and continued until Dumbledore chose to try to get Harry to react to it.

"Would you like to talk about it? I know that being in the tournament can cause someone of your age distress but one can always talk to their headmaster about anything." Dumbledore's eyes twinkled at him.

"Miss Skeeters article is a fabrication, just as the rest of her publications are, it does not take a genius to figure that out," sneered Harry as Dumbledore tried to use a different approach.

"What about her accusations of dark rituals? I know that you must be feeling intimidated and scared because you're against older students but you don't need to resort to the darkness to beat them my boy, the language you used in front of the dragon is a perfect indicator of side effects from dark rituals." Harry raised his eyebrow at the mention of him being scared and scoffed at the end of Dumbledore's statement.

"Also killing the dragon Harry? Couldn't you have come up with a plan that did not involve the murder of such a magnificent creature? Hagrid has been inconsolable ever since the end of the first task my boy. The wizarding world is now a little bit dimmer now that you killed that dragon, surely I could've helped you, Harry."

"I do not care what you think of me headmaster, those who know me and are my friends know the truth and I won't even attempt at trying to change the minds of the deluded and simple, I will say this once and only once; there is no evidence of dark magical rituals that I used to aid me in this damned tournament."

"And you helping me? You can barely help yourself with people's names, how could you possibly be able to help me when you cannot control a simple tournament, the fallout from said tournament and even students within your own halls. Besides, I have all the help I need right here," Harry tapped his index finger on the side of his head.

Whilst Harry was speaking his piece, Dumbledore attempted to use legilimency on him, but when he tried to enter Harry's mind, it was as if he had simply passed through thin air he couldn't find it.

' _Impossible, no one can shield their mind in such a way, surely if someone had then I would've known about it.'_ Dumbledore thought furiously as he tried to backtrack quickly, lest Harry notice anything amiss.

"Naughty, naughty Headmaster, trying to enter my mind? You wouldn't survive a trip in there _old man_ , things can get a bit… _crazy as one wanders on._ " Dumbledore was shocked to the core as he listened to Harry speak with an almost insanity to his words and backed off.

"I apologize Harry, my boy, I did not know that you were schooled in the art of defending your mind, you must refer me to your teacher as I am very eager to learn that technique. I was only concerned for your wellbeing and making sure that you were not influenced by anything dark." Dumbledore tried to give his excuse but Harry only waved him off.

"Are we finished here?" without waiting for a reply, Harry turned around and left the headmaster's office.

* * *

 _ **Scene break**_

* * *

As Harry exited the headmaster's office and began to stroll around the castle at a leisurely pace, he emptied his thoughts to feel the magic around him and stretch his mind out into the complex web that consisted the hopes and dreams of the people around him.

For a good half hour, Harry strolled along the halls of Hogwarts, half lost in the hopes of a better tomorrow from his Hogwarts peers, the visitors from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang and the teachers when suddenly one of the thoughts caught his attention.

' _Now what is this I wonder?'_ he thought as he slowed his walking down to focus on this particular string.

" _How am I going to influence the brat when he doesn't listen to me, he's the smartest of his lot so he'd see something a mile away, and so I'll have to keep with my original plan until the third task comes."_

' _Interesting, this person wants to influence a person, most likely me, and is now waiting for the third task for the culmination? It would provide some entertainment for it and I am always up for a game,'_ but as Harry tried to continue looking, someone caught his attention by a small cough.

"Yes, Daphne?" Daphne was surprised at hearing Harry know who it was.

"Sometime in the future you'll have to teach me that, but anyway to the point of why I wanted your attention, you know your offer from down in the chamber? Well, I thought about it and after the first task, I wish to learn." Daphne said with a nod.

Harry stared into Daphne's eyes for what must have seemed like an eternity but to the outside world it was barely a few seconds before answering her but the way his voice sounded, it sounded as if there was more than one person speaking.

"Once you agree to this, there is no turning back, once you are committed, _your very soul_ will be committed and be mine to use as I wish."

Harry's words frightened her slightly but she had made her mind up to become a student under her friend and was sticking with it, _no matter what_.

"If you'll accept me as your student, I will commit my very soul to the teachings you follow," as Daphne spoke her agreement, Harry delved into the webs and looked for any strings that had any deception in Daphne concerning this moment but found none.

Making sure that the surrounding area was clear of any interlopers, Harry turned back to Daphne with the entirety of his eyes shining with the unbridled power of the warp.

His voice again changed to as if there were now _multiple_ beings speaking with the one voice, each being deep but high pitched at the same time.

"Then kneel."

As Daphne knelt down in front of her extremely soon to be teacher/friend, she felt the air around them grow thick and heavy with the power of the warp that was felt by the crowd during the first task.

Daphne heard Harry begin to chant in an unknown language that _felt_ just as malevolent as it sounded and felt a hand softly grasp her head and heard her friend revert to English.

" **This mortal offers her life and soul to your service oh Great One! The bonds and ties that once bound her future are now yours to pluck and play with oh Architect of Fate! She chooses the path of the great sorcerers of old and wishes to further the power of Tzeentch!"** In Daphne's mind, by the way her friend spoke, it was if he was speaking to a higher power, _'Like a deity or something, but that's ridic- '_

" _ **I accept."**_

Daphne's eyes widened in absolute shock as she tried to process what she heard, a voice, an actual voice, just as Harry's but with _so_ many more voices in it had responded and accepted her offering.

Harry's eyes pulsed with power as he directed it through his hand, down into Daphne's body as her form started to change and shift as pain lanced through her body with her nose and jaw elongating into a beak then returning to its human form.

She felt the skin of her arms turn featherlike with claws replacing her fingers and like her face, reverted to its original, human state. **(AN1)**

After several more seconds of opening Daphne's body up to the effects of the warp, Harry lifted his hand off his friends head and looked at her heavily breathing form.

Daphne quickly regained her breath as Harry commanded her to rise and look at him.

Harry locked his warp fuelled eyes onto Daphne's equally unnerving blue eyes with an inquisitive eye as he looked her up and down, studying her for any unexpected mutations.

After finding none, he stood in front of her and after he said his next words, the two of them fled the corridor quickly, lest any of the professors or other students find them and the dark magic being used.

"Come now my dear, we shall begin your training at once, you will need every shred of it as you will be _my very first."_

* * *

 _ **Scene break**_

* * *

Over in another part of the castle, Hermione stopped suddenly when the power of the warp flared up suddenly then retracted just as quickly.

' _That certainly wasn't from me so I wonder what Harry has done now, should be fun next time the group gathers,'_ she thought as she exited the library after a brief read of a book for classwork.

"Hey Hermione, can I borrow you for a second?" Lavender's voice interrupted her thoughts as she agreed and started to walk along beside her friend.

"Listen, I've been thinking about what you offered and I've decided to accept it, I don't know about Padma but I'm sure she'll accept as well." Lavender said with a smile as the two of the stopped in an empty corridor.

"Are you sure about this? There is no turning back and some of the things that are involved will seem a bit…strange and evil to the wizarding world," Hermione cautioned her friend about committing but she smiled brightly when Lavender only nodded her acceptance.

"Either way, after what Harry's performance against the dragon, I'd be a fool not to."

"Oh my sweet Lavender, that was _his_ version of the offer, I'm going to show you _my_ version of the offer." Hermione looked around and spotted a broom closet that as she dragged Lavender towards it, it sounded and seemed empty.

"Now my dear, I'm going to show you just what some of the rewards will be from your choice," and with that, Hermione dragged Lavender inside the broom closet, shut the door firmly while making it soundproof and locked securely.

* * *

 _ **Scene break**_

* * *

In an unused classroom, away from any prying eyes, a trio of students stood opposite one another, each face was hidden by the shadows cast by the low lighting but they knew who the other two were and vice versa.

"When are you going to tell them?" one of them said, identifying her as a female to her shadowed counterpart.

"By their growing powers, I think the best time would be after the Yule Ball, they're going to announce it soon as it has always happened before the second task."

The male in the middle had called them here to discuss what he felt and when he was going to reveal himself.

"You do realise that once you tell them, there could be blood spilled between you and him," the second female conveyed her concern for the male as she spoke.

"Hopefully it won't be that bad, then again we are in his domain and he is considered the champion of the undisputed god of magic, and there is always his performance against the dragon," the male's voice seemed to gain an edge to it when he came to the first task.

"Well, whatever happens, you'll have backup should something go wrong."

The male smiled at them and conveyed his thanks before the three of them left the classroom, lest anyone find out about them before the time to reveal themselves was perfect, as if they were like a plague, waiting to spring up at the right time.

* * *

 _ **Now that Skeeters articles have created some backlash for Harry, will Dumbledore focus a closer eye on Harry's journey through the tournament to watch for any more 'dark magic'? Daphne has been accepted into the webs of Tzeentch, what did Harry mean by his very first? In addition, Lavender has been accepted into the court of the Prince of Pleasure, will Padma follow her friend? Just who are the male and female who talked in the unused classroom? Find out next time on The Affliction!**_

 **AN1:** Look up a Female Tzeentch Magus for the reference, they were the features as Tzeentch accepted Daphne's offering.

 **Give it a good read, possibly even give a review as they are always welcome and it tells me if you're liking the story and you have yourself a very good day :)**


	11. Chapter 10 - The Egg, Ball & Betrayal

_**AN: Something to think about my fellow readers: Wizards smoke out of long pipes so they do not risk setting their beards on fire.**_

 **Jean-Ray:** Well, if you're wondering when the reveal might happen for both groups, just read on find out!

* * *

Chapter 10 – **The Egg, Ball and Betrayal**

"Mr Potter could you stay behind for a few moments please?" Professor Flitwick said as the end of class bell rang and everyone was leaving.

Harry waited until the rest of the class exited before walking up to his teacher.

"Now Harry, I know that you're an illegal participant in this but during the tournament there is something called the Yule Ball, as you can probably tell by the name, it is a ball that is held to honour the tournament and the champions will open up the first dance." Flitwick explained.

"So because of me being in this farce, I am expected to open the ball with a dance? Do I at least get a partner?" Harry joked, slightly.

"Yes you do my boy and I am sorry for piling this on you on top of the tournament business, it's all a part of the tradition of the tournament."

Harry walked out of his talk with the Professor with a slight apprehension towards the ball and the prospect of dancing.

' _As much as it would be funny to see the faces of those who doubt me, I have much better things to do than to indulge in functions that would serve the followers of Slaanesh better than I,'_ he thought as he continued to walk through the halls, coming up with plans then scraping them in favour of new ones.

" _ **While I admit that this domain is usually reserved for Slaanesh and her…vices, this would give you an opportunity to show off, show that you are not cowered by the bug and whispers of those beneath you."**_

' _True and that does make me wonder, will Hermione go to the ball or will she skip it in favour of doing something more productive with Lavender? Probably skip it.'_

" _ **Your friend's presence in the warp is growing; she will take on more and more aspects of Slaanesh just as you will from me, leave her to her own devices and concentrate more on your own."**_

Harry nodded to Tzeentch's final words and began to direct his thinking towards the dreaded ball and beyond.

* * *

 _ **Scene break**_

* * *

"Students may I have your attention please? In a fortnight's time, a Yule Ball shall be held in celebration of the champions and the tournament, fourth years and above are only to attend but if you wish, you can invite a person from a lower year," said Dumbledore to the hall with a beaming smile.

"The champions of the tournament shall open the ball as tradition states and most importantly, it is a time to have fun" with that Dumbledore sat back down, all the while watching as the hall broke out in loud discussions about the ball.

Over at the Ravenclaw table, the group, now including Neville, Ginny, Lavender, Padma and Daphne, as she did not care about the house system anymore, much to the chagrin of her house, just like the rest of the hall, began to discuss what to plan. 

_Flashback starts_

" _Greengrass!" a loud voice interrupted Daphne's walk down in the dungeons and as she turned around, she saw that is was Malfoy with his goons by his side with several older Slytherins behind them._

 _Daphne's only response was to raise an elegant eyebrow in question as she waited for Malfoy's usual speech about her friends but it all seemed to come to a head this time when Malfoy attempted something he shouldn't._

" _Greengrass, I've waited patiently for you to come to your senses and leave that pathetic group of mudbloods and blood-traitors, but it seems as though I have to take matters into my own hands." Malfoy motioned to the group of older snakes to move behind Daphne._

 _Daphne watched as she became surrounded by members of her own house, seemingly prepared to hold prevent her escape and make sure that if anyone came across them, none would interfere._

" _You know, I did not want things to come to this, you're a pureblood witch who could become something greater but instead you wish to dirty yourself by hanging around with filth, such a shame really." Malfoy smirked at her, clearly showing he didn't care at all._

" _Malfoy, you seem to be under the impression that I care about what you think, you say I could become something greater if I stuck with my fellow purebloods? I am already greater than you realise, I have given myself over to a power greater than what you consider pureblood magic." Daphne spat at Malfoy as she slowly stalked up to him._

 _All the while Daphne was speaking, the other snakes didn't realise that the shadows behind them were growing and beginning to suck up any light that was in the corridor until all that could be seen was two glowing blue eyes in the darkness._

" _You say being a pureblood makes you stronger? Prove your strength then pureblood," after Daphne whispered the last syllable, screeches came racing from out of the shadows, racing towards the Slytherins as Daphne unleashed what she learned and practiced under her new teacher's guidance; a very high talent for illusions and manipulations._

 _Flashback ends_

Daphne smirked slightly as she remembered the screams that came from the other Slytherins and how the only thing that they would remember was the feeling of being hunted by the denizens of the warp.

"So who do you think you'll go with Neville?" Hermione asked as she plucked a succulent looking red apple from the fruit bowl with a smile.

"Well it seems like an inevitability that I shall ask my dear Ginny to accompany me and have a grand old time, but then we may not go and enjoy a night in." Neville said with a smile as he turned towards Ginny and received an agreeing nod of her head.

"How about you Hermione? Will you dazzle us with your beauty at the ball?" Harry asked as he kept twisting and moving his hands close together with a small light shining from between them every now and then.

"Me at the ball? Being at the ball would be a pleasure due to having the attention of every male there and maybe some females, I would be delighted to be the bell of the ball with my dear sweet Lavender here but honestly, there is _so_ much more pleasure to be gained from just us two than the entire ball." Hermione smirked at Lavender, which made her blush in response.

The group collectively raised an eyebrow at Hermione's blunt response and Lavender's blush but decided to leave their friends to their own devices, as they seemed to enjoy it.

"Well as much as this seems more like your thing Hermione, against better judgments and the opportunities to be gained, I shall not be going. I will not lower myself to the whims of this tournament and the demands of this society." Harry said resolutely without a care for the opinions of wizards.

"Well then what will Luna and Daphne be doing?" asked a curious Hermione.

"Whatever they choose to do, but knowing them as I do then I would wager they will be helping me with whatever I am doing." Harry looked at his two friends and received nods in return at the commitment to the night.

The group made small talk for the next few minutes before they began to split off into their respective classes, each one of them having different thoughts as they exited the hall.

' _The night of the ball shall pleasurable indeed.'_

' _The night of the ball shall be a perfect night to delve deeper into the hopes and dreams of others for the benefit of the Architect.'_

' _The main thing now is how do I tell him and when?'_

* * *

 _ **Scene break**_

* * *

A few days before the night of the ball, Harry and his friends were sitting on the grounds of Hogwarts as they had a free period.

Around him he could hear the trio of Hermione, Lavender whispering to Padma about what they could do during the night of the Ball as the they were trying to persuade her to at least try what they were planning.

Neville and Ginny were talking in hushed tones about something that the others weren't privy to which made him curious as to why but chose to give them their space as Harry knew that every member of their little 'family' deserved privacy.

Luna had her eyes closed with as they constantly moved, as he knew that she was utilising her gifts as she followed the unholy order she was given.

Daphne was reading a chapter from a book recommended from Harry as she wanted to rise in power quickly but at a slow enough pace so as Harry had explained the dangers of gaining too much power too quickly so she wouldn't gain any mutations.

Before Harry could continue taking in the view around him, he was interrupted by someone calling out to him from behind.

"Harry…Hey, Harry!"

Harry turned his body to see who it was and was confused when the identity of the shouter became apparent to him.

Cedric Diggory was walking up to the group with a couple of his friends who seemed to be arguing with him over something.

Harry concentrated slightly and tried to listen to their conversation and could only pick up little parts of it.

"It's a mistake Cedric and you know it."

"He's your rival in this tournament."

" _If he didn't help me out for the first task, I would've had no idea about the dragons!_ My decision has been made and I'm going to help him, it's what a _real_ Hufflepuff do. _"_

After Cedric had said his final piece, his friends quietened down at his words but still kept up pace with him as they walked up to Harry and his friends.

"Yes, Cedric?" Harry queried with a raised eyebrow.

Cedric stalled slightly as he looked around at Harry's group and noticed that his Slytherin friend was with him, which made him slightly wary of her but his Hufflepuff loyalty won over and continued with what he was going to say.

"Listen, I never properly thanked you for helping me out with the first task." Cedric looked back at his friends who shook their heads in negative at his actions.

"The reason I've come out here is to repay the favour, if you haven't solved the egg yet, open it under water and listen carefully, I know you're smart Harry so I know you'll understand the words," and with that Cedric turned around and left with his friends.

"Well that was strange." Daphne's voice broke Harry out of his thoughts at he turned back to his friends and noticed they were all looking at him.

"Do you think you should follow his advice? As his friends said, you **are** his rival and he could've lied about the secret of the egg." Neville said with a small gesture of his head towards the retreating figures of Cedric and his friends.

"As his fellow Hufflepuffs stated, Cedric had no reason to give me the information for the clue, I only gave him the dragon information and left him to deal with the consequences, this bears some looking into I suppose," Harry said with a small shrug.

* * *

 _ **Scene break**_

* * *

The day of the ball came and with it, a great many students preparing themselves for a night that they felt would be a night to remember.

As the group's classes finished for the day, Harry and Neville had chosen to walk around the castle grounds, discussing the future tasks and what they might entail when they chose to stop and sit for the moment.

As both Harry and Neville sat in an alcove overlooking the black lake, their silence was broken by Neville who began to speak.

"Harry, you know that I'll always have your back right?"

Harry nodded slowly, although he was very confused as to what Neville was talking about and why he chose this moment to speak.

"Ever since you finished the first task, people have been looking at you differently than they usually have, yes the population has been constantly looking at you funnily ever since first year but ever since this year began, it is less trusting and warier." Neville spoke slowly as the giant squid in the lake began to surface and retreat back down several times.

Harry waited for Neville to continue but as Neville was about to continue, they were interrupted by a voice from behind them.

"Harry, Longbottom, it's time to go inside and get dressed for the ball."

The two of them looked behind themselves to find that it was Cedric that interrupted their talk to warn them about the time.

"How about we continue this conversation tomorrow? It'll give us plenty of time to talk and ask questions." Harry offered as Neville nodded in acceptance and the two of them began to walk back into the castle.

All the while Neville was walking inside the castle with Harry beside him, he was having an internal debate whether or not he wanted to continue the talk that he wanted with his brother but his inner thoughts were interrupted by the voice that had been with him since childhood.

" _ **Do not despair, my dear boy, despite him being the champion of Tzeentch, Harry will understand why you had to hide your true nature from him."**_

' _I hope so, because if not then may you help me because we're in his realm of influence and Harry will be stronger than I am, with Hermione potentially by his side then I will be in a very bad position.'_

" _ **Despite the history that I have with both Tzeentch and Slaanesh, for the course they have chosen, another ally will be welcome my boy, if not, then you'll always be welcome with me."**_

Neville's inner conversation finished as he noticed that the two of them came to the stairs that led them to their respective common rooms.

"Meet you in the morning down here at the stairs Nev?" Harry asked as he started to walk up the grand staircase.

"Yeah I'll meet you here," Neville responded as he began to walk down towards the Hufflepuff common room.

While the two brothers in arms separated, they were unaware of the conversation that was going on between their patrons about them.

" _ **You play a dangerous game, why have not told your champion to reveal himself to my own?"**_

" _ **I play a dangerous game? What will happen when your champion finds out Tzeentch? He will most likely attempt to kill my champion; the betrayal he will feel will be immense."**_

" _ **We shall see."**_

* * *

 _ **Scene break**_

* * *

The night of the Yule Ball was alight with excitement from the three schools almost making the castle shine just form the collective feeling of happiness due to the ball.

When everybody was expecting the four champions to open the ball with spectacular grace, they would certainly be disappointed if they could see the lack of grace and decorum the fourth champion was presenting as Harry slapped away another warp blast that came from his student.

"Focus Daphne! Our enemies will not give you even a moment to catch your breath. You keep your senses open but your mind shut lest anyone attempt at trying to gain entrance." Harry shouted as he lashed out with his mind and took control of Daphne's body, proving that warning had great merit.

As Harry and Daphne finished up their spar, Luna chose to add in her say to the advice giving.

"What he speaks _is_ true, an open mind is like a castle with its gates unbarred for its secrets to be plundered. That is of course if your mind were accessible to any chump with some ability for reading minds."

As the trio of them returned back to their seating area, Daphne brought up Harry's interrupted conversation that he had with Neville.

"So what do you think he wants to talk to you about?" Daphne queried as she marked several parts of a passage of the book she held.

"Well it certainly isn't that he wants to stay away from the group as the tensions in the castle ever increase due this farce of a tournament. I would normally look into the inner thoughts to find out more but for somethings such as this, I wouldn't do that to a brother." Harry leaned forward slightly in deep thought as he tried to think of several scenarios, some which involved the warp but as hard as he tried, Tzeentch had been ever silent regarding Neville.

"What of the egg from the first task? Have you opened it yet?" questioned Luna as she and Daphne turned towards Harry with curious faces.

Harry sighed slightly as he reached down and grabbed the golden egg from his bag, took it out and laid it on the table in the middle of the trio.

"I took Cedric's advice and listened to it under water. The language they used was a very particular one as it can only be heard under water and by researching the language is mermish." Harry placed the piece of parchment next to the egg so the girls could read it together.

As the atmosphere around them turned into a silence, the only sounds were of the lit braziers crackling with dripping warp fire and the sound of whispers flowing from the girls' mouths as they tried to deduce what was given.

" _We've taken what you'll sorely miss_? The way that this is written, it sounds as if they are taking the person that you will sorely miss, and honestly, I would place my bet on Luna being taken." As Daphne said this, deep cracks began to sprout around the room with the braziers lighting up to a brighter degree it almost became unbearable but it went away as soon as it appeared.

What followed what a voice that Daphne could honestly say scared her and held a little sympathy for those who would try to take their friend.

"Those that try to even lay a finger on Luna, will experience a fate worse than being a spawn of chaos."

As the magic around them began to ever so _slowly_ close the cracks and repair the damage, the three of them began to make plans should the judges of the tournament attempt anything against their other friends.

* * *

 _ **Scene break**_

* * *

The next day came and with it, more looks of scorn and displeasure from the tournament judges, teachers, and students.

As the conversations slowly began to pick back up as the group sat down for breakfast, Harry remembered about yesterday's conversation and when he voiced his asking of Neville, he was somewhat shocked to see Neville jump slightly at his words.

"Come on Nev, time for this conversation that we missed out on having yesterday."

"S-sure Harry, I know the perfect place to have so we won't be disturbed." With that the two of them got up and left the great hall, not noticing the many pairs of eyes following them and with their friends following along after them, not really knowing that the entire group were about to get sucked down deeper into the rabbit hole.

* * *

 _ **Scene break**_

* * *

As Neville led Harry down towards the great lake, into an alcove away from prying eyes, it got Harry thinking as to what his brother in all but blood might want to discuss.

Finally, after a few more minutes of careful walking, they finally stopped in an area that had a pretty decent size about it while at the same time, keeping whomever was in it, away from prying eyes.

"Alright then Nev, you've got me all alone and vulnerable. What's this about?" Harry joked slightly but seeing Neville's strained face, he sat down in silence and waited for him to speak.

"Alright, here we go. Harry, I don't know if I've ever told you this but ever since I was a child, my home life hasn't been all that grand as being a pureblood might like to express. When I was a baby, my parents were tortured to insanity by death eaters and because of that, I was sent to live with my grandmother, who wasn't the best guardian."

Harry sat in silence as he listened to his friend began to pace slightly and bare his past out to him.

"The despair I felt because of her over-bearing and constant comparison between my father and I, coupled with my great-uncle who decided it was a great idea to throw me out the window to make my magic react, it wasn't the best home life."

"As I became a child, I made my very first friend, sorry mate, but he was the one who comforted me when all I could feel was despair at the lifestyle that my grandmother tried to force me into living. He has a sense of family that is a much better alternative to hers and with it comes a paternal figure I can look up to and he even sometimes lets me call him papa."

As Neville continued speaking, warning bells began to go off in Harry's head as he took in and processed Neville's words.

' _Despair?….He?….Paternal figure?….Papa? No, no there is no way! It is impossible!'_

"He's been my friend of mine ever since my childhood and ever since second year when we saw Hermione with pink eyes, he has wanted me to keep my identity secret, for when the time is right." Neville plead slightly to Harry to show him of sincerity but as he took a step forward, Harry took one back.

Neville took the look in his friend's eyes and sighed in slight resignation and fully confirmed Harry's fears.

"I see you've figured it out. Ever since childhood, Hermione has had Slaanesh, ever since childhood you have had Tzeentch and ever since childhood I have had- "Neville was cut off as he stared into a pair of eyes that burned with such fire as if Tzeentch himself had taken over his friend's body and heard a snarl that could send even the most powerful daemon running in terror.

" _ **Nurgle!**_ "

* * *

 _ **Now that Harry, Daphne and Luna have deciphered an important part of the egg, will there be any attempts on his friends' safety and if there is, how far will Harry go to bring them back to him? Neville has come out and revealed that just like Harry and Hermione, he is a vessel of one of the gods of chaos but because it is Nurgle, the eternal enemy of Tzeentch, what will the consequences be for both the groups stability and friendships, but most importantly, Harry and Neville's relationship?**_

 **Give it a good read, possibly even give a review as they are always welcome and it tells me if you're liking the story and you have yourself a very good day :)**


	12. Chapter 11 - Fractures & The Second Task

_**AN: What possessed people in the past to grab a random plant, have a good ol' munch on it and decide to make classify it as a fruit but at the same time classify it as a herb? Seriously humanity!**_

 **Jean-Ray:** I'm glad that you're enjoying it as much as you are and making Neville have Nurgle just seemed right in my mind

* * *

 **Chapter 11 – Fractures & The Second Task**

" _ **Nurgle!**_ "

The word kept buzzing around in Harry's mind as his psyche kept running through Neville's words over and over again, until what seemed like an eternity, became suddenly still, as if he were statue.

Neville watched Harry's form suddenly become rigid and still, as if he was preparing to do something and so with a slight shift of his body, he too became prepared for whatever might come but he wasn't prepared for the sudden speed that Harry showed he was rammed against the stone alcove wall with fingers curling around his throat.

"You mean to tell me, that YOU, the friend that I call my brother in all but blood, is the vessel and champion for _Nurgle_? Anathema to Tzeentch. Is that what you're telling me?" Harry snarled at his friend as his fingers kept a strong grip around Neville's throat.

As Neville tried but failed to speak, several things happened at once; from above and slightly behind the two champions, a trio of groups came racing out of the shadows with different intentions.

From behind the two boys came the group consisting of Hermione, Lavender and Padma. Hermione led at the front with the intention to back up whichever of her friends needed the most but mainly she was there to keep things from becoming too hot.

Coming to Harry's side was Luna and Daphne. Their intention was simple: backup for Harry should he request it but even though they knew that Harry was the strongest of the champions in their current setting, the plague father was considered their god's anathema and so they kept their eyes firmly on the last group that entered the fray.

And lastly, to _everyone's_ surprise came the duo of Ginny and Susan. Their addition came as a surprise to everyone as they hadn't seen or felt a single sign of warp interference coming from either one of them but seeing them at Neville's side with similar eyes that bubbled with the power of Nurgle's warp power behind them.

" **So this is what is has come down to eh** _ **brother**_ **? The strongest two of the dark gods pitted against each other once again with Slaanesh as the deciding vote**. **How you have kept this secret for so long amazes me but then again what is a plague but a hiding and festering thing that springs up at the most opportune time to wreak as much havoc as possible."** Even though he was faced with more than one Nurgle follower, he knew that if push came to shove, Luna and Daphne would defend him.

As Harry kept Neville lifted off the ground, he had managed to loosen Harry's fingers a bit to be able to speak and plead his case to the person he still considered his brother.

" **I had no choice to keep a secret as big as this from you but Nurgle wanted it to be so and I listened. I am the champion of Nurgle but I am still your brother!"** Neville said emphatically as his word took on the dark tone of the dark tongue, to show to Harry that even though he had slightly betrayed him, he still had his back.

As Harry listened to Neville's words, he had decided that enough time had passed for such words and decided on the actions that may or may not destroy the brotherhood they had built up from their years of friendship.

Harry's fingers slowly unfurled from Neville's neck slightly but as soon as Neville felt relief that Harry would listen to logic, he suddenly found himself thrown across the alcove, slamming his side into the rock face.

"Neville!" cried both Ginny and Susan as they ran to the friend's side as they tried to help him up but as they lifted him up to make sure he was alright, Harry called out a warning to them both.

"Girls, it would be an unwise decision to help the champion of Nurgle, he is going to pay for doing this to us."

Ginny and Susan both glared with warning filled eyes at Harry's words and prepared to cast several hexes at him in the defense of their friend.

"Can someone please explain what is going on? Harry suddenly flipping out and attacking Neville and the others having a standoff isn't exactly reassuring for those who don't know the history." Padma asked the group, looking to anyone who could answer her and it was Hermione that answered her.

"When they came into being, it was originally thought that only Tzeentch came through to Harry, but we were wrong. Slaanesh also came through and only brought attention to Tzeentch through myself in second year. We had no idea that another, let alone Nurgle, had come through as well." Hermione explained slowly so as to not escalate the problem even further.

"So what does this have to do with Harry flipping out?" Padma said while the group noticed that Neville had started to get back up to his feet.

"Well, because Tzeentch comes from hope and ambition, Nurgle is the opposite; he is defiance born of despair and hopelessness. Thus opposing forces. Just as we would have our opposites, those two would take any chance they could get at attacking the other, with very rare moments of working together for a common goal." Hermione finished explaining as Neville fully got back up to his feet.

"Ginny, Susan stand aside. He's right. This has been in the coming for some time, ever since we have been growing in power, this would've happened no matter what. Whenever you are ready brother." Neville sighed in acceptance at what had to happen because of who they followed but nodded his head resolutely as he swore that he would do as much damage to Harry as he received.

It was a blink of the eye and you'll miss it moment as the first spell impacted where Neville's head had been but he had moved it as soon as he had seen Harry begin to move and responded in kind as he returned a spell with equal semi-lethal force.

* * *

 _ **Scene break**_

* * *

By now, the powers of chaos group had been noticeably missing from the last half of breakfast and well into first period when several students were noticeably running through the hallways, pushing anybody that was out in the halls away from their intended path, along with two people that had seen _much_ better days and so someone quickly ran to grab a teacher to tell what they had seen.

As soon as the group burst through the doors of the hospital wing, Madam Pomfrey took one look at the students that they had carried in with them, sputtered an incoherent sentence and pointed towards two beds to lay them on.

As the two students were gently placed on the beds, Pomphrey ran to her office to floo the Headmaster but stopped as the doors were once again pushed open to reveal the Headmaster with a frown on his face as he looked towards his intended targets.

"Ah Poppy! If you could clear this up for me; I was alerted by one of the staff that there was a group running towards here with two people that seemed very heavily damaged, is this true?" Dumbledore questioned as he looked into her eyes.

Madame Pomphrey could only nod her head slightly a she directed the Headmaster over to where it was revealed with great surprise that it was Harry Potter and Neville Longbottom had come in with such grievous injuries.

"What in the name of Merlin has happened to these poor boys?" Dumbledore demanded of the girls as he turned towards them with a glare.

Hermione chose to speak for the group as she had the authority to speak for the group due to her status as champion.

"They had a disagreement Headmaster, that is all."

Dumbledore looked at Hermione over the rim of his glasses and felt the temptation to look into her memories to see the truth for himself but resisted as he turned back to Poppy to ask about their injuries.

"Let me just cast some spells and determine what the injuries, both out and in, are."

As the school nurse cast her diagnosis spells over the two with the damage being written out on a piece of parchment, the colour of her face went whiter and whiter as she went along and by the end of it, she ran back to her office to retrieve the necessary potions to treat her patients.

Dumbledore watched as the nurse ran back to her office and then straight back to the two boys on beds and began to shove potion after potion down their throats, all the while casting spells over the two.

Dumbledore reached over to the piece of parchment that lay on the bedside table and with raised eyebrows, began to read down the list of injuries, with equal amount of face paling.

 _-Multiple fractures along arms_

 _-Multiple fractures along legs_

 _-Several broken ribs_

 _-Internal bleeding_

 _-Numerous cuts along arms_

 _-Numerous cuts along legs_

The list went on for several more lines before ending with magical exhaustion.

Dumbledore slowly turned towards the group with a ghost white face and wide eyes.

"They had a…. disagreement?" Dumbledore questions the girls with a whisper as he was still trying to comprehend the damage that the two boys had dealt each other.

"As I said Headmaster, they had a disagreement and it led to this," Hermione stated in a deadpan voice.

"Then why did you do nothing to stop them?!" Dumbledore raised his voice at the group students, leading to several raised eyebrows but kept silent as he stood there waiting.

"As much as we wanted to Headmaster, they chose to fight and despite some amongst us wanting to join in, they chose to fight alone without assistance. Now if you would excuse us Headmaster, we must watch over our friends, lest anything untoward happen to them." With that, Hermione and the group walked over to their friends' beds with each group separated into their respective allegiance.

"Poppy, please keep me updated on Mr Potter's health as the next stage of the Tournament is just a month away." Dumbledore asked while he looked over at the group, eyeing several of them with interest as he began to mentally design several plans up but left the group for the moment and chose to leave.

* * *

 _ **Scene break**_

* * *

As the sun and moon continued their eternal cycle and the weeks wore on, the patience of the judge's and the school's residents were becoming more drawn out and thin at the continued hospitalization of their fourth champion.

"Dumbledore something has to give; the second task is tomorrow with no sign of Potter of being able to compete in the task." Crouch said vehemently as he paced around in the headmaster's office as the judge's had gathered together to discuss the current status of Harry Potter.

"He should be kicked out of the tournament anyvay, he refused the Ball and spat on the tournament as a hole," Karkaroff said in his gravelly tone of voice but no one listened to him.

"And I keep telling you Barty, he will be perfectly fine to compete in the second task tomorrow. Now have we gathered the participants for the task?" Dumbledore asked the group as a collective.

"Da, Viktor's hostage has been given the potion and is waiting for us in their room on the ship in preparation to be included," Karkaroff growled in his gravelly voice from the furthest side of the room.

"And you Madam?" Dumbledore looked at Madam Maxine.

"Oui Dumblydore, Fleur's is in the Beauxbatons carriage and waiting for the task to be held."

Dumbledore nodded in acceptance and turned his head towards Moody with his ever moving fake eye.

"Has anything new turned up in your investigations Alastor?"

"Nothing new at this point Albus. Whoever entered Potter into the tournament must been extremely powerful because with all the tricks I pulled in my investigations, nothing came up at all." Moody growled, slightly hidden in the shadows of Dumbledore's office.

"Alright then. Because you haven't found anything I'll see if I can get Cornelius to lend us some aurors for more protection in the third task then. Hopefully this should deter anyone from further interference." Dumbledore said with a resolute nod of the head as the group continued on to discuss specifics for the next task.

* * *

 _ **Scene break**_

* * *

The day of the second task came and with it, everyone's expectations of Harry not competing was further compounded by him not being there during morning breakfast.

During breakfast, everyone kept looking at Neville and Hermione, who, with the rest of the group, was sitting at the Ravenclaw table like always but just like as the previous number of weeks, it was without Harry, Luna and Daphne, as they had decided to stick with Harry as he was still in the hospital.

"Do you think he'll be out in the next half-hour? The second task begins in an hour and still nothing from him?" Lavender asked the open question but no one seemed to have an answer to give.

"Considering how powerful he is; Harry should've been out of the hospital before me but something or someone is keeping him there, the best thing to do is to wait and watch for whatever is going on play out." Neville said with a nod and as the group went back to silence, Daphne came running in with several tears in her eyes.

"Daphne? What's wrong?" Hermione said with alarmed eyes as the surrounding students leaned closer to listen in as to what had the rebellious Slytherin so worked up.

"They've taken Luna."

* * *

 _ **Scene break**_

* * *

After hearing what Daphne had said, the group quickly left the great hall to some smatterings of whispers from those who had heard what she said and entered an unused classroom for privacy.

"Alright, Daphne, from the top," Neville said as everyone took their places in the room.

"Okay, as you all know Luna and I were staying with Harry in the hospital wing and waiting for him to wake up. Well probably sometime during the night, someone or some group of people came in and took Luna for Tzeentch knows what." Daphne told them what had happened and the group descended into silence.

For several minutes the group had stayed silent whilst thinking of different reasons for the kidnaping of Luna before Hermione chose to reassure Daphne of their friend's wellbeing.

"Well, we know this; Luna has always been strong and I supremely doubt that Harry would let _anything_ bad happen to either her or you. He'll wake up and he'll get her back."

Daphne could only nod as the students of all three school began to make the trek down to the black lake for the beginning of the second task.

* * *

 _ **Scene break**_

* * *

"We cannot wait any longer for Potter. There is only five more minutes till we have to begin the task and if he is not here by the commencement, then he shall be disqualified from this task and given zero points." Ludo Bagman stated the group of judges as the majority of the people on the platforms were shifting about, waiting for a sign from the absent champion.

As the crowd began to talk amongst themselves about the missing champion, the timer for the cannon to fire reached the ten second mark but before anyone could make to announce the disqualification, everyone was blown onto their backs as a powerful gust of fire materialised in the centre of the platform.

As the fire disappeared, Harry Potter stood in the middle of the now smoldering circle with a look of fury on his face.

"You have stolen something very precious from me, so begin this task so that I may take back what is mine," Harry told them in a flat tone as he turned towards the lake with his fingers flexing every few seconds.

As he was greeted with that dragged on for several more seconds, Crouch finally got around to stuttering out the commencement of the task.

"Al-lr-r-ight then ch-champions, you may begin the task whenever you are ready."

At the last word, the other champions shook themselves out of their stupor and dove into the water, leaving Harry behind as he turned towards the lake with a sneer.

As Harry began to cast his sense out to find his missing friend, he began to think about what might prove effective to ensure that those who would try something like this in the future know the consequences of such actions.

For several more minutes, Harry stood stock still, as if he was waiting for something to happen and all the while he stood still, the crowd began to whisper about how he wasn't diving into the lake.

"What's wrong Potter? Scared of a little bit of water?"

Harry didn't respond to the taunt and continued to stand still for a few more seconds before raising his hand and in front of the entire audience, spoke the language of chaos.

As the audience listened closely to try to understand what Harry was saying, the entirety of the platforms, besides those who were allied with chaos, grasped their heads in pain as the words grated in the ears and caused headaches to develop in some students.

As Harry's voice began to die down into a whisper, a dark purple vortex appeared over the lake, hovering ever so slightly but gave off an ominous feeling whenever someone looked at it.

Seconds passed before everyone on the docks heard a loud screech, almost as if someone rubbed a pair of rusty metal sheets next to their ears and to their horror, a creature of dark purple with long, sharp fangs came screaming out of the vortex.

People watched as the creature flew across the docks and before anyone could see what had happened, Harry had grabbed a hold of one of the daemon's horns but before anyone could stop him, he and the creature dove into the water with nary a care.

* * *

 _ **Scene break**_

* * *

Deeper and deeper Harry and his mount dived into the black depths of the black lake, Harry didn't know exactly where his friend was being held but the using the daemon's senses, he knew that he was headed in the right direction.

As he passed several drop offs, Harry noticed in front of him, a large forest of seaweed that held a pack of grindylow that kept harassing his silvery haired fellow champion.

As he passed over the seaweed, the pack of grindylow sensed the monster that was above them and scattered away as fast as they could, lest they lose their lives and become a meal.

Fleur noticed the grindylow cease their attack on her person as a large shadow passed her with a sense of fear that spread quickly through her body and when she looked up to see what had passed over her, all she saw was a pair of ice blue eyes on top of the dark shadow.

Harry didn't look back to see if the French champion was alright as he had only a single goal in mind and he wouldn't let anything get in his way but his thoughts slowed as he came upon the village of the merpeople.

In droves the merpeople came out of their underwater huts to see what had given them tingles up their spines and when they spied upon the large creature coming towards their village, many rushed back into the safety of their housing back there were those that took up arms against the creature to ward it off.

In his head, Harry laughed to himself and he propelled his body off of the daemon towards the center of the village, where the four hostages were tied to the center piece rock.

As Harry slowed himself down, he was met by a merman with a coral styled crown sat upon its head, gilded spear in hand with a glare that was directed not at Harry, but at his daemon mount that was still floating in the water, just inside the village.

Harry looked back at his daemon, then back at the chief merman and faster than you could blink, grabbed the merman by the neck and held him with an iron grip.

As soon as Harry grabbed the chief, the rest of the merman that had taken up arms rushed to rescue their chief but were instantly halted by the daemon that, to their horror, began to grab at any merman it could latch onto, and feasted upon them.

The chief looked in horror and fear at the creature that began to feast upon his people and as soon as it had finished the first victim, Harry leaned in close its ear and spoke in a crisp, clear tone.

" ** _M_** _ **y Lord Tzeentch! I offer this sacrifice of the soul of this chieftain in your name!"**_

Harry grabbed the merman by its head with his hands and with a sadistic smile, his hands alit with warp fire and swirled around the merman's head.

The merman screeched in pain as it felt its head being, what should be impossible under water, burnt with a horrifically painful fire and as the last vestiges of its life was burnt out, the last sight it saw was its people being consumed by what it now knew, to be a daemon.

As the energies of the warp swirled around the village, Harry swam to where the hostages were kept and was about to free Luna from where she was kept but stopped still when he felt a human presence behind him.

Harry slowly turned around in the water and to his mild surprise, Fleur floated in the water in front of him, wide eyes at the sight of the daemon feasting on the last merman and the subsequent sacrifice of the chief.

As Harry stared into Fleur's eyes, he thought he saw something flash in them but just as it came, it quickly left before he could figure it out.

Harry turned back towards the hostages and noted that the smallest of the four had similar hair to Fleur and quickly figured out that there must've been a familial connection between to the two and so he queried with a nod towards the small girl, which got a nod in return.

Harry took out his wand and sent consecutive cutting spells towards the ropes that held Luna and the small girl but turned around and cast the flame spell he remembered from back in his second year.

Fleur watched as Harry took his friend and returned back onto the large creature before turning back towards her sister, grabbed her by her arm and began to swim quickly to the surface.

As she kicked as hard as she could, Harry's words would not get unstuck from her mind as they constantly played out in her mind, floating in the water, flaring ever so slightly until Harry had left her vision.

* * *

 _ **Now that fractures have appeared and subsequent trials has come to the chaotic trio, will their bond forged through their trials and friendship last? Will Harry and Neville make up and return to their brotherhood? Will Harry's showing of using daemons come back to haunt him? Will Fleur fall into the ironic allure that is the powers of chaos? Find out next time on The Affliction!**_

 _Bottom Author's note: Yeah bit of a long one this chapter but once I got going, I just felt that it couldn't be seperated into two seperate chapters because of the flow that I felt writing this one._

 **Give it a good read, possibly even give a review as they are always welcome and it tells me if you're liking the story and you have yourself a very good day :)**


	13. Chapter 12 - Final Task & Dark Promises

_**AN: Sorry for the late update, with it being Christmas time and all that, I just haven't had a lot of time to finish this particular chapter also major story blockage. BUT! Merry whatever you celebrate, I hope you all have a great day and have a happy new year my friends!**_

 **BROMBROS:** Well I hope that you found it to be a good interesting

 **Jamin P. Rose:** I'm certainly glad you think so and never fear, the next chapter is here!

 **Moonreaper666:** Oooh you never know, something might happen to completely wreck his whole plan and get _his_ ass handed to him.

 **Chapter 12 – The Final Task & Dark Promises**

A week after the second task had passed and with it, no positive change had come between the brotherhood that was once between Harry and Neville.

Dumbledore silently watched on his golden throne at the head table as Harry sat at the far end of the Ravenclaw table with his two ever faithful Miss Lovegood and the new addition of Miss Greengrass but noticed that Miss Granger and Mr Longbottom weren't with him.

"Filius, Pomona, do you know what has happened between young Mr Potter, Miss Granger and Mr Longbottom? Normally I'd expect to see them together at the Ravenclaw table but they seem to be separated today, surely after their scuffle Harry and Mr Longbottom would've made up."

Filius and Pomona looked over at the table where Harry was sitting with only two of his friend and not the entire group and it surprised them to see such a view.

"That certainly is strange due to the nature of their relationship, I've even heard them refer to each other as proper siblings and not just best friends," Filius stated with a hint of curiosity in his voice.

It was what Pomona next that gave them somewhat of an idea of the wedge that came between the two.

"What Filius said is quite correct Albus, normally they would be inseparable due to their views but something truly bad had to have happened to cause such a split."

Dumbledore nodded with her words and went back to watching Harry and his friends for a few more minutes to try to gleam any more information from the interactions at the table but from the looks of the ending conversation, there was nothing more to be gleamed.

Just before the students ended their lunch, Albus quickly rose from his chair and walked down to where Harry was beginning to stand up from the table.

"Ah Harry my boy, I was wondering if I could have a moment of your time before you go to your next class? It doesn't matter if you're late, I shall write you a note, my boy."

Harry motioned towards Luna and Daphne to let them go ahead before following the Headmaster up to his office for the inevitable discussion.

* * *

 _ **Scene break**_

* * *

"Please have a seat, my boy. Now, Harry, it has come to my attention that you aren't spending as much time with Mr Longbottom, is there anything you want to talk about my boy?"

Harry's eyebrow raised slightly at the boldness of Dumbledore's questions but for his own entertainment, he decided to answer the questions but in his own way.

"Well Headmaster, I am sure you saw the injuries that myself and Neville sustained during our disagreement."

"What was this disagreement about to cause such injuries, my boy?"

"We had a... difference of opinion regarding certain aspects of our lives, something that is common amongst friends you see," Harry laughed in his head at seeing a slight flicker of frustration in Dumbledore's eyes.

The two descended into a one-sided uncomfortable silence as Harry chose to look around the to pass the time as he chose not to speak and give Dumbledore the power in the conversation.

Dumbledore watched as his young student looked around his office and noted that as he looked at the large golden stand standing at the side of his desk, he raised his eyebrow ever so slightly but other than, there was no reaction whatsoever.

Finally, as the silence began to grate on Dumbledore's mind, to his relief he remembered something that he wanted to inform Harry of something and broke the silence.

"Oh yes, I almost forgot to tell you, Harry, I recently had a discussion with the Minister of Magic and he has accepted to lend us some of his aurors for increased security, lest something unfortunate happen and they are due to arrive later on today."

"And you tell me this why Headmaster? Perhaps a helpful hint? Or maybe a warning?" Harry asked with a humourless smile.

"I only tell you this my boy so your mind can be more at peace knowing that you won't have to go to extremes to finish the remaining task," Dumbledore attempted to placate him.

After receiving no response from Harry but a simple nod of his head, Dumbledore let him leave and as he sat in his chair in silence, frustrating thoughts began to whirl around in his head, giving him a headache that he knew would last at least a few hours.

* * *

 _ **Scene break**_

* * *

It was just after lunchtime, where Harry had a free period, that he found himself walking across the grounds with nought but his thinking of the future.

' _Ever since the beginning of the tournament I have chosen to keep it a secret from myself but it is time to see who exactly entered my name in this farce is.'_

As Harry began to turn his control towards the strings of the past, his interest began to peak as he caught sight of a cloaked man beginning to change his face into another's after taking a sip from a hip flask.

' _What's this? Someone changing their face into another's to keep another identity? Now_ this _certainly is interesting.'_

As Harry continued along the path of the string, he came across a segment that had the face changer talking to the face that he was changing into and so he decided to listen in to whatever the topic was.

" _Constant vigilance eh Moody? You must be really rusty considering how easy it was or you're just not that good enough."_

 _Harry watched as the man taunted supposed Moody until it came to a point that had Harry thinking about the third task even more._

" _With the Tri-Wizard Tournament back in action and coming to Hogwarts, my lord has given me the express task of ensuring that young Mr Potter somehow gets entered into it with him surviving all that the tasks throw at him and even making it to the final task which holds the ever important trophy."_

 _Harry raised his eyebrow at the blatant revealing of plans from this man to his captive._

" _But that's not the best part, the best is this: after I help Potter win the final task, the dark lord will be reborn in his full glory to begin his promise anew to purge the filthy muggle-lovers and mudbloods from our noble world! And my lord will know, that I, Barty Crouch Jnr, helped him to rise again in all of his glory and will reward me handsomely, not the rat that hides in the shadows pathetically."_

As Harry left the string of the past and was brought back to the present, he chose this moment to sit down on one of the boulders of the stone circle and reassess his plans now that this new information had been opened to him.

"The dark lord reborn eh? And at the end of the tournament as well? And here I thought this farce was becoming a boring."

Harry continued to make plans in silence before he was interrupted by his patron, bringing him out of his thoughts.

" _ **It would seem that your defence teacher is plotting to use you in a ritual to bring back his master, foolish mortal."**_

"Yes, though I do wonder what the product of a wizard using the warp infused blood of a sorcerer that more powerful than he in a rebirth ritual would be? And the mention of the rat? It looks like I will be meeting Pettigrew again after all." Harry said with an afterthought.

" _ **Regarding that weakling, I assume you have something that will permanently erase him?"**_

"Oh yes, something that will be of ample vengeance and it will bring about, even more, chaos for the future." At the end of the statement, he began to outline his plans for both the third task and the plan he had for Pettigrew with the approval of his dark patron.

* * *

 _ **Scene break**_

* * *

The day of the third and final task came and with it, a more palpable excitement at the prospects of whoever should win the Tri-Wizard Tournament.

Everyone from all three schools including outside reporters from all three countries, so as to bring in even more publicity that shone the British Ministry in a positive light and to the majority of the crowd's surprise, extra auror's that were already going on their patrols with stern faces.

Harry stood in his section of the champions area with small smatterings of support from the Hogwarts section which he took note of, but other than those small pockets, his only support came from his own friends.

As he looked around, Harry noticed that as one of the auror's began to walk by his section, she had a very different shade of hair that he hadn't seen on someone, even in the magical world: pink.

"Why do you have pink hair?"

Harry's words startled the pink haired auror and she spun around to answer him, she promptly tripped over nothing right in front of him.

"Sorry, sorry, my bad."

Harry only raised an eyebrow at her answer and waited till she picked herself up and put on a brave face, not caring about the glares from several other auror's in the area.

"Right so what was your question? Oh yeah it was about my hair, wasn't it? Well, I'm a metamorphmagus, you know, someone who can change their features at will," the female auror said, somewhat hesitantly as she answered his question.

"A changling? Now that is interesting," Harry said with a certain gleam in his eye that made the auror raise her own eyebrow in response but walked away after wishing him good luck.

' _A changlinng? Here? Oh, this was meant to be; this is the work of chaos to bring me such fortune."_ Harry thought to himself as he watched the auror continue on her way but was interrupted as Dumbledore came to the forefront to address the crowd.

"Welcome, everyone! Welcome, each and every one of you to the third and final task of this historic event. Now as everyone can see, the four champions shall enter this maze behind me, facing tests that will require every ounce of courage and knowledge they have. At the very centre of the maze, is the Tri-wizard Cup and the first who reaches and takes it, shall be declared the winner!" as he spread his arm with cheer, the music section began to play as three of the four champions gave one last look to the crowd and began to enter the maze.

* * *

 _ **Scene break**_

* * *

As the maze closed its branches behind him, Harry felt what he thought was supposed to be an ominous cold wind float through the maze with several sounds that sounded like wild beasts but he only laughed at them.

"You think this is meant to frighten me? Mazes are somewhat of a speciality for someone such as myself and this does not even compare." Harry shouted as he stopped in front of a wall, it's branches and leaves moving ever so slightly due to the wind.

Harry stared at it for a second before thrusting a hand out and launching a human sized ball of fire at it, completely burning the leaves and branches away, leaving a hole large enough for him to climb through with little effort.

Wall after wall, giant fireball after giant fireball he launched at the walls, Harry stepped through each and every wall he came across until he came across spells being launched at each other but it was two against one; Delacour and Diggory against Krum.

Harry noted that with every spell Krum sent at the two, it was deflected or blocked but it left a slight sizzle and a bit of smoke, indicating that Krum was using borderline, if not dark magic.

For several minutes he watched as the trio traded spells back and forth before he got bored of being a spectator and chose to become participants in the little duel.

* * *

 _ **Scene break**_

* * *

From the corner of her eye, Fleur noticed that from the giant hole in the wall that almost interrupted the duel out came the fourth competitor, calmly watching their duel with an almost bored look on his face.

Fleur nudged Cedric slightly so as to make sure that his defence of them was not disrupted but only to notify him that they had company and received a nod in acknowledgement.

After those few minutes of waiting for their competition to do something, all they got was a scant few seconds of thought before their vision was covered in darkness for a second before returning but to their surprise, Krum was on the ground, smoke rising from his still breathing body, with Harry standing over him with his wand out.

"Potter, what in merlins name just happened?" Cedric asked as they slowly approached the fourth champion.

"Don't worry about it Cedric, all I did was stop him and that's the main thing. Now, shall we complete this maze and grab the 'glory' of the Tri-wizard cup?" Harry stretched his arm out and launched another fireball at the maze wall, which to the others immense surprise, the cup that they sought was in the clearing that Harry had opened up.

Before anyone could blink, Cedric snapped off a stunning spell at Fleur, which brought a raised eyebrow from Harry.

"A Hogwarts victory no matter what Harry."

At Cedric's words, Harry dipped his head in respect for Cedric's deviousness, considering he was a Hufflepuff, Harry had not expected that from someone from the house of loyalty.

As he and Cedric walked up to the cup, both having their own internal thoughts about it, Harry's was interrupted by Tzeentch.

" _ **The time has come for you, my champion, bring chaos upon your enemies and show this Voldemort the power you wield."**_

Harry bowed his head slightly at his patron's commands and with a nod to Cedric, both of the Hogwarts champions grasped the handles of the Tri-Wizard cup, not knowing that while one's fate shall end, the fates of more would forever be altered.

* * *

 _ **Scene break**_

* * *

As the twirling and whizzing stopped, the two champions hit the ground hard and tumbled for a few meters before coming to a stop.

As the two began to get up from the ground, their recovery was interrupted by a voice that sounded like a hiss.

"Kill the spare!"

Harry looked up to see a wizard that held something in their arms and as he watched the green light raced towards Cedric, the two champions looked at each other, one with fear in his eyes and the other with resignation.

Harry felt the air rush past him as Cedric's body was blown backwards, but as the graveyard descended into silence, Harry stood up, eyes full of hatred and promises of pain.

"We meet again Peter, but this time, you won't survive this meeting," Harry began to walk at a leisure pace towards Peter, wand out and hand crackling with warp lightning.

"N-n-now H-h-harry, y-you don't w-want to do t-this, w-what w-would your parents s-say?"

Harry stopped for a second, appearing to be thoughtful and Peter breathed a small sigh of relief but paled rapidly as Harry began to walk with a furious step towards him again.

"What would my parents say? Well, I wouldn't know, because a backstabbing rat chose to act as such and betray them. So I declare you a rat and forever a rat you shall be, surrounded by those who would backstab their own kind for eternity!" As Harry stopped in front of the sobbing and whimpering traitor, his right hand burst into a green flame for a split second before a glowing, green rock with jagged edges sat in it.

Peter watched as the glowing rock inched ever so closer, glowing with a darkness that easily eclipsed the pretend evil that called itself Voldemort.

Unbeknownst to the two of them, the cauldron behind them began to shake with dark magic and darkness, with a python slithering away quickly before it was caught.

With a shout of uncontrolled power, Harry rammed the warp infused stone into Peter's forehead, creating a swirling tempest surrounding them.

For what seemed like an eternity for Peter but was only a few minutes in real time, the tempest exploded in a force of warp infused wind, unintentionally corrupting the dark ritual behind them and blowing Harry back, hitting his head on the large gravestone, knocking him unconscious.

* * *

 _ **Scene break**_

* * *

Back at Hogwarts, the crowd eagerly awaited for the last two champions to return, already seeing the Bulgarian and French champion returning without the trophy.

As the crowd continued to wait in the stands, a number of students sucked in deep breaths as they felt an ominous echo ring through the warp, signalling that something big had happened, whether it be in their favour they knew not but they all still felt it.

" _ **Something has happened Slaanesh, you cannot deny that is has something to do with Tzeentch and his champion."**_

" _ **The only thing we can do is wait and see what new plot Tzeentch has hatched this time."**_

Unaware of the godly discussion, over in the support section for Harry, Hermione sat next to Neville with a worried look on her face.

"Did Harry discuss anything of his plans with you, Hermione?"

"No nothing, he kept the plans for this task a secret. Ever since your confrontation, he has been keeping what he usually told me, a secret." Hermione sighed as she wondered, again, where her brother was.

* * *

 _ **Scene break**_

* * *

When Harry came to, noticed that he was tied up with the stone reaper centrepiece of the grave, with the newly reborn Voldemort parading his rebirth in front of several death eaters.

"It has been too long my friends, thirteen years, in fact, thirteen years I waited for my faithful to come find me and yet, only one found me and it wasn't one of my circle. I find myself…disappointed."

Harry saw some of the death eaters wince and lower their heads in submission and he scoffed out loud at their weakness.

"Oh Harry, I wondered when you would grace us with your awakening, it seems whatever you did to poor Wormtail was a bit too much for you and knocked you out."

"What I did was beyond you and it was a power that is beyond your level." Harry smiled as he saw Voldemort's and some of the death eaters' faces darken with anger at his words.

"And what pray tell, is this power that is supposedly beyond my level? A level I shall remind you that unsurpassed by any and all, including your precious headmaster Dumbledore," Voldemort sneered as he walked up to Harry, almost nose to nose.

"Magic."

Silence reigned in the graveyard for several moments before Voldemort laughed at the audacity of Harry's answer and replied furiously.

"You think that you know a more powerful magic than I have found? A magical knowledge that somehow surpasses the level of a fourth year Harry? Then come, show us this supposed powerful magic." Voldemort opened his arms in a way that indicated that the floor was Harry's before quietly chuckling to himself.

"Oh dear, I am so forgetful, here let me- "Voldemort's words were cut off as the stone reaper that held Harry shattered into minuscule pieces before their eyes.

As the dust from the shattering settled, Harry walked forward with eyes glowing harshly and wand in hand.

Idly, some of the death eaters within the graveyard noted that the clouds in the skies were darkening, already dark as they were, they somehow became darker in nature and seemed to give off an ominous feeling to them.

"You wish to see this power that I have been gifted? As you wish." With a sharp thrust upwards of his wand, pink lightning came crackling out and disappearing into the sky, only to begin sparking outwards in the clouds, creating a booming thunderstorm.

As Harry stood stock still, eyes still glowing, Voldemort seized this opportunity to snap off a quick entrails expelling curse to end his young enemy's performance but to the shock of them, Harry deftly dodged to the side of the curse, without moving from his spot.

"Crucio! _"_

Harry saw as Voldemort spat the unforgivable out, he finally moved from his spot and disappeared from sight in a mass of blue shadows.

Slightly shaken at the sight of his nemesis disappearing, Voldemort quickly smothered any shock and plastered a smile on his face.

"So this is what we get from the great Harry Potter? A brave word or two and then running away like a coward. I expected better from you Potter, both your father and mother were somewhat capable duellists and showed more bravery and courage than you do now. You bring shame upon the Potter name," Voldemort called out to the shadows as the death eaters behind him began to laugh as well.

Before anyone could say anything else, the sky sounded another great boom, but this time there was lightning that streaked across the sky, diverging from each other in multiple directions.

As the group were distracted by the thunder and lightning, none of them noticed the ground beneath them slowly churned as barbed chains wrapped themselves around their legs, never once letting their barbs wound their victims too much.

"You mistake my disappearance for cowardice Voldemort, it is but a simple matter of using what is at my disposal _._ " As Harry's whisper rang across the graveyard, the shadows coalesced into his form, standing in front of the dark lord.

As both groups descended into silence, Voldemort saw Harry's hand twitch ever so slightly and retaliated with him casting spell after spell at Harry, with the unforgivables mixed in between.

As soon as Voldemort began casting, Harry responded in kind but what he cast weren't considered spells, they were just balls of raw magic combined with warp energies.

With every spell Voldemort threw at him, Harry responded with two more but as the duel went on, Harry moved closer and closer to his enemy, eyes burning with restrained warp energies.

When the death eaters saw that Harry was gained ground and moving closer to their lord, several of them tried to move forward to assist but cried out in pain as they realised they were trapped in barbed chains with the barbs digging in every time they moved.

Before he knew it, Voldemort's wand hand was grasped in an iron lock grip, with the hand attached to his now _very_ close enemy, staring directly into his eyes.

As he held Voldemort's wrist in his grip, Harry looked over to the death eaters that were trapped and with the power of the warp, he glared at several of his enemies, causing them to scream in terror and with a motion of a closing fist, the screaming was silenced as their very souls were wrenched from their bodies, offered up as a sacrifice to the ruinous powers.

Voldemort watched as the majority of his death eaters were killed in such a brutal and if he was to be honest, magical way and looked back at his nemesis with shaky breaths.

"You thought it was going to be easy, weren't you? You are _nothing_ compared to the power of the warp and besides, _**my lord Tzeentch won your war a long, long time ago!**_ " Harry whispered the dark tongue in Voldemort's ear.

As he dropped Voldemort and began to walk back to the Tri-wizard cup, his thoughts slowly returned to his humanity and what they were before this mess began and knelt over to Cedric's body.

"I am sorry for what happened Cedric."

With the cup in his left hand and his right grasping onto Cedric, he disappeared in a flash of warp fire, leaving a silent graveyard with only a few survivors, with memories that showed them what a taste of what true power was.

* * *

 _ **Scene break**_

* * *

As the crowds grew excited when the burst of fire transported both living and dead bodies, whispers began to spread out at a snail's pace at why only one of them showed signs of moving and one didn't.

Before too long, a scream rang out from the Beauxbatons section with fingers pointing towards Cedric's corpse.

Before anyone could properly begin to shout questions, the judges and aurors closed in quickly and cornered everything off, both to keep people from seeing something and to begin questioning as to what had happened.

"Harry! Harry my boy, what in merlins name has happened?" Dumbledore quickly closed in on his student before any auror could start questioning him.

Harry turned his head slightly and looked over at the Diggory's, who were cradling their now dead son to their chests.

"Voldemort has returned."

* * *

 _ **With the schism continuing to live in between the trio, will the relationship between chaotic students be repaired? Will Harry using the glowing rock on Wormtail come back to haunt him? Just what was that stone anyways? Will Harry's fight with Voldemort and his warnings come true? Or will it take him down ever so further the path of chaos? And what will happen now that Harry has told of Voldemort's return? Will the people believe it? Or will they ignore it? Find out next time on The Affliction!**_

 **Give it a good read, possibly even give a review as they are always welcome and it tells me if you're liking the story and you have yourself a very good day :)**


	14. Chapter 13 - End of Year

_**AN:**_ Everything happens for a reason. _Everything._

 **BROMBROS:** He may, or he not, we shall see won't we?

 **Moonreaper666:** Unfortunately, not yet, but there are good reasons for it not happening.

* * *

 **Chapter 13 – End of Year**

The crowd was silent as Harry's words and the sight of Mr Diggory crying over the body of his dead son.

"W-what did you say, my boy?" Dumbledore asked him with his gaze firmly on Harry.

"You heard me Dumbledore, Voldemort has returned by using a dark ritual."

Albus' eyebrows furrowed in deep thought as he began to think of the plans that he had set up and how they needed to be enacted now that the dark lord had returned, but before he could question Harry more, the Minister's voice rose up above anyone else's.

"AUROR'S! ARREST THAT BOY!"

Everyone watched as several Aurors stepped forward towards Harry, wands out with what they considered a placating manner of stance.

"On what grounds may I ask that you have called for my arrest Minister?" Harry queried as he prepared himself for another duel.

"For murder Potter! You have clearly murdered the poor Diggory boy to win the contest and you have brought back the evidence of your crime! Auror's, arrest him immediately!" Everyone saw the spittle fly from the minister's mouth as he kept crying out for the arrest of the fourth champion.

Everyone in the crowd held their breath, waiting to see if the Aurors would actually continue to follow the minister's orders and arrest Potter, but as the Aurors began to close in again, Harry once again called out to the minister.

After spending the minutes in shocked silence, Dumbledore finally regained his voice and showed his anger towards the minister.

"Cornelius! How dare you accuse one of my students of murder against a fellow student. You will do no such thing as arresting Mr Potter because there is no proof of the matter."

Fudge sputtered once more at being reprimanded by the headmaster but whatever he was going to say next was interrupted by Harry.

"So because I come back with the body of my fellow champion, I _must_ be guilty? I am more than willing to submit my wand for review to see if I actually did cast the curse that murdered my friend here. Because isn't that what the Auror force is required to do? Find evidence to arrest the correct person, yes?" At his words, the Aurors that were closing in on him began to hesitate slightly, clearly thinking hard about his words.

Fudge swivelled his head around and saw that the crowd, all three of the nationalities, were glaring at the Aurors and whispering to themselves.

With his face turning a brilliant red, Fudge ordered the closest Auror to take the boys wand and look at the previous spells used. _'Anything at all to bring Potter down a notch'_ he thought with a snarl.

As the crowd watched the Auror cast several spells over his wand, no one in the crowd, even those from the ruinous cause, noticed the small glow that flowed from Harry's eyes.

Harry suppressed a smirk as he continually warped the reality of what the Auror what attempting to find, whether they be spells or anything that Fudge could use against him, he would always fall back onto his teachings and have a backup plan for the backup plan.

After several more minutes of intense reviewing, the Auror gave Harry back his wand with an almost disappointed sigh that escaped his mouth and turned back to the Minister.

"His wand is completely clean Minister, no sign whatsoever of any unforgivable, let alone any spells of dark nature. I even doubt he has enough power to cast the killing curse. So Potter, after the extensive and thorough inspection of your wand and further lack of evidence, you are free to go."

Harry repressed the smirk the threatened to form on his face as he looked from across the area to see the minister's face turn a deep red in anger and disappointment at the failure of attempted arrest but took a deep breath and calmed down somewhat.

"Very well then Potter, as the Auror has said, you are cleared of the charges, _for now_ , Dumbledore we shall discuss this talk of nonsense later on," with that Fudge turned and walked away, with those nearest to him hearing muttering from him until he disappeared from view.

As the crowd began to disperse, with the Diggory's taking the body of their son away, Dumbledore walked over to Harry with a serious look on his face.

"Is He really back my boy? Has Voldemort returned?"

"The enemy has returned Headmaster; you _must've_ seen the same signs as I have."

Dumbledore nodded his head with a sombre look as he looked back towards the castle.

Meanwhile, Harry watched as Moody kept looking side to side, as if he had something to hide and slunk away, clearly planning to do something.

"If you'll excuse me, Headmaster, I must give Professor Moody my thanks for his help in this tournament," without looking back, Harry began to shadow Moody with an intense look in his eye.

* * *

 _ **Scene break**_

* * *

As soon as he got back the office, Barty began to wave his wand, spelling everything to clean itself up and pack in their respective trunks.

' _I have succeeded! With the dark lord returned, he'll surely reward me with more favour over that rat and precious Lucius. But first, I need to get out of here before Dumbledore figures out, not likely though since he doesn't even realise that I took one of his closest ally's form for a year.'_

With each item in his possession that zoomed into the seven-tiered chest, Barty's heart began to beat that little bit faster, fearing that at any moment he would be discovered, taken to the minister and locked up again before he was rewarded by his master.

As the last item in his possession entered the chest and the chest lid closed, he began to sit down to take a breather and to gather his thoughts for a few moments but was interrupted by a knock on his door.

"Yes? Who is it?"

Before he could ask who it was again, the door began to open and through the doorway, Harry Potter's head popped in.

"Professor? I was wondering if I could have a few moments of your time before you left?"

Barty regarded the boy standing in front of him with a critical eye, judging whether or not the risk of being found out was worth it as opposed to stunning the boy and taking him back to his master.

"I swear Professor, this won't take long, I promise."

Harry walked into the room with his head down, eyes glued to the floor to give the imposter the sense that he was in control of the situation.

Barty waited for the boy to speak for several moments, but to his irritation, Potter stayed silent, eyes glued to the floor with his head down.

"Well, what isit boy?"

* * *

 _ **Scene break**_

* * *

"Severus you _must've_ noticed something this past year, anything at all? Perhaps something discussed with the Slytherins or something Igor?"

Severus watched as Albus paced back and forth across his office, eyebrows furrowed in deep thought as he kept trying to grasp at the shadow that kept slipping away.

"Albus, I have heard not a word from my Slytherins that pertains to any significance, all they talk about classes, inner power struggles and the seemingly ever increasing insanity of Moody," Severus responded in his usual drawl.

"Yes Alastor can be a bit overbearing at times but that is only because of his…" Severus noticed Albus go silent and furrowed his own eyebrows as he thought on the headmaster's words.

 _´Moody has been somewhat more insane this past year.'_

Severus snapped his head up as Albus raced past him and out the door with a stormy look on his face.

As he tried to follow the headmaster, Severus tried to call out to him to get him to slow down and explain what his thoughts were.

"Severus my boy, remember what you told me about what Igor told you about the dark mark? With it suddenly becoming darker and more clear? With this happening, I asked Alastor to keep an eye on things around this place and inform me of anything suspicious. With the end of the third task and Voldemort returning, Alastor would've come straight to me to make plans."

"And the conclusion you have made Headmaster?"

"The conclusion my dear boy is that someone is impersonating Alastor and as such, is an imposter!"

* * *

 _ **Scene break**_

* * *

"Well you see Professor, because of the help that I've had in this tournament, I want to pay back that help with a gift, so to speak." At Potter's words, alarm bells went off in Barty's head, warning him that something wrong was happening but he ignored them for the time.

He watched as the boy slowly walked into the centre of his office, still with his head down but now with his hands clasped behind him.

"Before I give you this gift, I just wanted to say, _**you made a mistake entering me into this tournament Barty**_ _._ "

Barty's eyes widened as he heard the boy say his name, but before he could snap his wand out into his waiting hand, he was briefly blinded by a flash resonating from the boy, before his world was engulfed in pain.

Harry watched as the whirling mass of chaotic energy swirled around Crouch Jr and coalesced around him. _'Like a cocoon, waiting for the day when the beauty emerges'_ Harry thought before the screaming of flesh, bone and power came to a grinding halt, leaving only a puddle of flesh and blood.

"Whoops, oh well."

Harry took out his wand and cleaned vanished the remains of what once was Bartemius Crouch Jr, just in time before the door was blasted open by the emerging Dumbledore, with Snape coming in behind him.

"Harry! Harry my boy, where is he? Where is Professor Moody?" Dumbledore's words came out in a rush as he swept the room with his eyes, trying to peer in every shadow that might conceal a foe.

"Why? I something wrong with him headmaster?"

"Just answer the question Potter! We don't have time for your stupid questions and nonsense," sneered Severus.

"Headmaster insults aside, all I know is that right after I came to thank Professor Moody for his assistance, he suddenly got up and practically ran from this room, muttering to himself about needing to leave quickly."

Dumbledore cursed to himself silently and began to look around the room, wand still in hand, at anything and everything that might've seen out of place.

As Dumbledore stopped near the imposter's desk, Severus' voice called out him to bring him over.

"Headmaster, the chest."

At the headmaster's nod, Severus cast a spell towards the chest, causing it to slowly open, revealing not one chest but seven compartments.

With each compartment, both Albus and Severus crept closer, until the last and smallest compartment opened up, only to reveal a deep hideaway and the _real_ Alastor Moody at the bottom.

* * *

 _ **Scene break**_

* * *

After the school had mourned for the loss of Cedric Diggory at the end of year feast, Harry found himself sitting in the courtyard, overlooking the black lake with his hands on the railing.

" _ **Your presence within the warp is growing my champion. Just as the champions of old, you have changed the fates of untold numbers from what they were before."**_

"The traitor will return, though, whether it be in a year's time or ten, I and the followers of Tzeentch will be there to burn the vermin."

" _ **Yes, as the followers of Chaos grow in number and power, so shall the influence of the warp begin to sway others, perhaps the French champion will be the first?"**_

Harry smirked slightly as he remembered the interactions with the French champion as she chose to talk with him after the second task.

* * *

 _*Flashback Starts*_

* * *

" _Monsieur Potter, may I 'ave a word?"_

 _Harry's conversation with Luna and Daphne went silent as they turned their heads towards her and to her anxiety, their cold blue eyes unnerved her slightly._

" _Of course Miss Delacour. Luna, Daphne, we shall continue our conversation later shall we?" Harry led Fleur away from the two and towards a little area that gave them some privacy._

 _As the two of them stopped, Fleur looked at Harry and froze slightly as she stared into those eyes, his words echoing at the back of her mind from down in the black lake._

 _Harry watched as his fellow champion stiffened slightly as her eyes glazed over slightly as if remembering something but she quickly shook herself out of it and took and deep breath in._

" _Monsieur Potter, I wish to apologise for my words back at ze start of ze year, I was wrong to say such words and as such, I ask for your forgiveness."_

 _Fleur waited nervously as Harry stared right at her, as if into her very soul, seemingly searching for something before her thoughts were interrupted._

" _There is something else isn't there? Something…hidden."_

 _Fleur could only nod nervously as Harry kept growing closer to the second, hidden, reason._

" _Could it be about what happened in the black lake? Just before I left?"_

 _Harry guessed correctly as Fleur lowered her eyes to the ground in shame at how easy he had read her._

" _Oui Monsieur Potter."_

" _Why? Why want what I offered?"_

 _Fleur's eyes snapped back to his as she took in his, what she thought, were words of refusal._

" _Ze reason why I want zis is because I want to stop people from judging me constantly, looking at me with a guarded eye as if I am going to ruin their boyfriends!" Fleur took a breath to calm herself down before she began to rant even more and alienate someone who could help her._

" _Miss Delacour, Fleur, you don't need my help of attaining this power. What you need is on shelf nine, row six, seventh book down, right next to two books that have the numbers eight and eleven on the spines." Harry smiled as he watched the French champion go through several emotions at once, starting with anger at his refusal, resignation at his words and finally confusion at the end._

" _And what would I find at zis specific locale?"_

" _Think of it as a compendium Fleur, a book through which you can go down four paths but only three are open to you."_

" _Why would zis fourth path be locked from moi?" Fleur narrowed her eyes at him, almost daring him to take away this opportunity._

" _Because of what you are Fleur. No, not a veela, yes I know what you are, but because you are a magic user. But because time is growing short, I shall leave you here and say this; the book is big and will seem unending, but it will further your knowledge." With that, Harry turned and left Fleur to find this supposed big book._

 _Fleur walked through the library towards the ninth shelf, walked down the gap until she found the seventh book on shelf number six, right next to the strangely ordered numbered books._

' _Mon Dieu! 'E was not kidding about ze size of zis book.'_

 _Fleur grabbed the large book from the shelf and with a strain, lowered it onto the desk in front of her._

 _As Fleur looked the book over, the multicolour features jumped out at her immediately as the blues, reds, greens, even pinks and a black/white mix was present, but what caught her attention most was the pictograph on the front._

' _An eight pointed star?'_

* * *

 _*End Flash Back*_

* * *

For an untold time, Harry stood there, unmoving, unflinching, while at the same time making sure he wasn't interrupted as he stood there.

Before long, his thoughts were interrupted by his friends and allies, who took their spots in the arches next to his.

Harry felt more than looked as the different energies of the warp flowed around, the ever-changing power of Tzeentch, the enticing power of Slaanesh and the sickening feeling of the power of Nurgle.

"So what do we do now Harry?" Hermione asked as she kept an eye on both Harry and Neville, watching for any sudden movements made from either of them.

Harry stared into Neville's eyes as he regarded Hermione's question, _'What_ do _we do indeed dear sister?'_.

"As you and I have done during the time before this year Hermione, I suspect Neville has done the same, correct?" Neville nodded in agreement as he revealed that had also been recruiting for his patron.

"Well then we continue doing what we have done, but this time, we go further; tell your followers to do their own recruiting, show them the power of chaos!"

Harry turned away and looked at the departing schools, hearing his fellow chaotic champions stand next to him, he whispered the final words of what had been an eventful year.

"War is on the winds, and even the greatest is nothing without followers."

 _ **With Harry proving his innocence against the accusations of Minister Fudge, will it come back to bite in the future? Or will it be an unforeseen boon for him? As Harry dealt with the imposter Moody in his own special way, did the real Moody hear anything from down below in the chest? Will Fleur fall down the slippery slope of Chaos? Who shall she turn to? Find out next time of The Affliction!**_

 **Give it a good read, possibly even give a review as they are always welcome and it tells me if you're liking the story and you have yourself a very good day :)**


	15. Not a chapter (Interlude)

_**I do apologise if you were all hoping for a chapter update, obviously, this isn't one but it will come out soon.**_

 _ **Anyways onto the point. I was asked if I could a powers/abilities list that the champions have, this is at current time and chapter of the whole story, (Who, what, when, where, a little bit of why and how) for the Champions.**_

 ** _The next chapter will be more of a chapter away from the champs to see what is happening in certain parts of the normal world._**

* * *

 **Harry - Champion of Tzeentch aka OP af**

 **Magical power levels:** _Unknown (Thought to be in the upper tier due to the events leading him to become the boy-who-lived.)_

 **Warp Sorcerer power levels:** _Unknown_

 **Warp Abilities:** _Some known, possibly an unknown repertoire of knowledge_

 _Warptime_

 _Bolt of Change_

 _Breath of Chaos_

 _Infernal Gateway_

 _Warpfire_

 _Withering Gaze_

 _Chains of Torment_

 _Teleportation_

 _Soul stealing_

 _The ability to summon daemons from the warp without the need of a sacrificial circle or summoning ritual._

 _The ability to delve into the past/present of a person of his choice to seek out new knowledge. (Appears as strings, akin to a spider's web)_

 _The ability to, whilst utilising the strings, can guide a person to unknowingly work towards the goals of the ruinous powers._ (OP af)

 **Mutations:** _A small patch of opaque blue skin on his right arm when he was young due to it being broken by Dudley_.

 **Gifts:** _Eye of Tzeentch (Gifted to him by Tzeentch in his third year to utilise against the then thought to be traitor, Sirius Black.)_

 _Daemon Weapon (Previously, it was the sword of Gryffindor but after Harry had defeated the basilisk, Tzeentch had warped the once noble blade into a fiendish and warped opposite, leading it to become a Deathscreamer sword.)_

 _Mark of Tzeentch (Gifted to Harry before the beginning of his third year to fully begin his utilisation of the warp.)_

 _The Book of Tzeentch (This book, which Harry can summon either in its entirety or in small sections, was given to Harry as a learning tool by his patron during the holidays before his third year.)_

 **Major Followers:**

 _Luna (After being saved from the basilisk, Luna embraced the comforts of the warp, enhancing her already considerable split-reality witnessing abilities, leading her to become Harry's oracle.)_

 _Daphne (After witnessing but a fraction of the power of the warp during the first task of the Tri-Wizard tournament, Daphne offered her life, her very soul to the ruinous powers that her friend Harry follows.)_

 _Sarah (Being a muggle and a girl who favours books and knowledge, with her being bullied because of it, Sarah was lured into the grasp of chaos by Harry being a friend to her, offering her the ability to bring those around to her to form the very first normal followers of the Architect of Fate.)_

* * *

 **Hermione - Champion of Slaanesh aka OP af**

 **Magical power levels:** _Unknown (Thought to be in the middle to lower tier due to her being a muggleborn, thus her having dirty blood, by the purebloods despite her being up in the highest student scores.)_

 **Warp Sorcerer power levels:** _Unknown_

 **Warp Abilities:** _Unknown, possibly an unknown repertoire of knowledge_ (I do have a legit reason for this though.)

 **Mutations:** _Unknown_

 **Gifts:** _Mark of Slaanesh (Gifted to her by Slaanesh during the holidays before the beginning of third year. Along with Harry, she was gifted this by her patron to begin her utilisation of the warp.)_

 _Daemon weapon (Gifted to her by the Prince of Pleasure to make sure that the Prince's champion was on an equal footing to the Architect's Champion. Also to be utilised whilst training in close quarters combat.)_

 **Major Followers:**

 _Lavender (Taken into the sweet embrace of the Prince of Pleasure during their fourth year after Harry's display during the first task of the tournament.)_

 _Padma (Brought into the embrace of the Prince some time before the second task and the emergence of Nurgle.)_

 _Lisa (Being a muggle who wanted to enter a nightclub but refused entry, Lisa was lured away by Hermione and spent the night in the embrace of Slaanesh. Also with her began the beginning of the normal followers of Slaanesh.)_

* * *

 **Neville - Champion of Nurgle aka OP af**

 **Magical power levels:** _Unknown (Thought to be in the lower tiers by the purebloods due to his family being classified as blood-traitor's despite being in the highest student scores.)_

 **Warp Sorcerer power levels:** _Unknown_

 **Warp Abilities:** _Unknown, possibly an unknown repertoire of knowledge_ (Again, a legit reason)

 **Mutations:** _Unknown_

 **Gifts:** _Unknown_

 **Major Followers:**

 _Ginny (Despite her being in the circle of friends, Ginny has hidden her status as a follower of Nurgle at such an extreme level, even Harry did not foresee it.)_

 _Susan (Despite her being in the circle of friends, Susan has hidden her status as a follower of Nurgle at such an extreme level, even Harry did not foresee it.)_


	16. Chapter 14 - It starts with a whisper

_**AN: Seriously if there were any essential to a good, balanced and delicious dinner, it has to be the potato. It can be any way you want it done but by the old potato gods it is delicious.**_

 **BROMBOS:** I just hope when it comes round that I make it as interesting and enjoyable to read.

 **Jasmin P. Rose:** Hopefully this one is just as good

 **robwar80:** And there is a very good reason for that my friend, which will be explained but later on.

* * *

 **Chapter 14 – It starts with a whisper…..or you know, a bang?**

" _And now, a special news report coming in from our on the scene reporter, Diana Waters, Diana?"_

" _Thank you Cathy, for the past year, gang violence has been steadily on the decrease, but for the past month or so, recent gang activity has increased significantly, just not in the way you'd think. As you know, there are several recognised gangs by the police that operate within the city limits, but during the past month, known activity from these gangs has decreased as a new gang has arrived on scene."_

The television kept playing in the background as he quickly grabbed his jacket and placed his necklace around his head.

David looked in the mirror at himself with a small smile as hearing the small bits from the television brought about memories from the group he had joined back early last year.

' _Sure they seem a bit weird but isn't any group of friends? They also seem more legit than the normal groups that the city offer.'_

David exited his room and ran downstairs to greet his parents and grab a quick bite of lunch before he went out.

"Good morning sweetheart, I've got some dinner in the oven going so wherever you're going, be back before sundown okay?" David's mother said with a smile as she gave her son a hug.

"Come on mum, I'm only going out for a couple of hours with friends, we're just going to hang about and probably play video games, and don't worry, I have my meds so I can take them at the prescribed time," David gave his mother a kiss goodbye and shouted goodbye to his father as he left the house and jogged down the street.

A few houses down, he met up with one of his friends and smiled at them as they joined him.

As they turned a corner, the two of them met up with several more friends and greeted them with friendly smiles and handshakes all between them.

"You got the supplies?"

"Have I got the supplies he asks, of course, I have the supplies, I'm not that forgetful like Jeremy is," the teenager called Jeremy shouted in mock annoyance as the group laughed at the insult.

"Alright calm down you lot, let's give poor old Jeremy here a bit to go over his bit of the plan alright? God knows he needs it," the group laughed harder at poor Jeremy's face turning slightly red in embarrassment at the ribbing he was getting from his friends.

"Oh har-har, laugh it up shithead, you have the most important job of all if you cannot recall."

Jeremy's statement sobered them all up instantly as they looked towards David who had his hand in his pocket, clenched tightly around his medication he thought about his role.

The group stood silently on the sidewalk in thought for what seemed like an eternity to each of the teenagers, until one of them, Rebecca, shook them all out of their thoughts with a bright smile.

"Alright you lot, the time for deep thought is over and it is time to actually begin our project."

The group of teenagers then turned and crossed the road, walking towards the shopping centre with resolute looks on their faces, each and every one of them dead set on doing what their tasks were.

As David readjusted the backpack his friend gave him, thoughts of his mother spread into his mindset and he smiled a sad smile.

' _I'm not sorry for doing this mum, what I am sorry for is the fallout for you.'_

* * *

 _ **Scene break**_

* * *

" _It's a scenario that we all fear; a simple night in with the family when a stranger rings the doorbell. Just behind me, in the Williamson residence, is where this horrific tale began, with the murder of all five family members._

 _When neighbours in the area became concerned that the children were not out in the front yard playing, calls to the house were met with failures and thus police action became involved. What they found was a grisly sight to any serving police member; the two parents and their three young children brutally murdered, but the killer didn't stop there, the murderer, after killing them, removed their tongues."_

"Would ya turn tha' shite off?!"

Brian turned Conall and threw the can of stout that he was drinking from at him with a glare.

"Oh I'm sorry that I like a wee bit news every now and again, because you know, we do have pass the time to wait for this contact that we're supposed to meet."

Conall glared right back at Brian but turned away as he grumbled in acceptance and slinked back to the pool table in a backroom of the bar that they and their friends were gathered in.

Brian turned back towards the television above the bar and watched on with a grimace and sad shake of his head, _'Those poor children, sick fucks'_.

Several hours had passed since the news story broke and for the seventh time, Brian glanced at the clock above the bar.

"Who are you waiting for Brian? I've known you since you were a lad and you've only been this worked up when you and the lads would go about doing your work. Now tell me, who's this _contact_ of yours?"

Brian looked to the man he called uncle and thought about it in his mind for a few moments before he chose to tell him.

"Well a couple o' weeks I get this letter, it said some shite about knowing what me and the lads do and if they could employ us for a job. So apparently we have to wait for this supposed contact, don't know what they look like."

Finnegan _(Fin as he made his friends call him)_ raised his eyebrow at his pseudo nephew as he listened to him talk about the content of his letter.

As Brian finished his tale and waited for Finnegan to reply, he looked up and saw that the man he thought who could not be fazed by anything, suddenly turn a white pale, with eyes staring a darkened corner.

"Brian, now you know that I wouldn't dare try to interfere with your business or try to dissuade you, so I'm gonna ask you straight up, do you want some advice from this old soldier?"

Brian nodded his head as he stared intently as Fin, "Well lad, if you want my advice, that shadowed corner over there? If you ask me, that's your contact right there lad." With that, Fin turned away and moved to a different part of the bar to serve a new customer.

As he watched his pseudo uncle turn away from him, Brian looked over to the corner and to his astonishment, there _was_ someone sitting there, unfortunately, covered in shadows so he couldn't tell who.

As he slowly got off his seat, Brian faltered in his step as he took in the sudden movement of a head snapping up and looking straight at him, as if they knew that he was making his way over to them.

Brian's trepidation continued to grow with each step he made towards the person, but as he did, he noticed that displayed, quite obviously in his opinion, sat a small blue medallion, resting on the chest of the person.

Brian sat down in the chair opposite the mystery person and waited for them to speak, not trusting his own voice at the moment lest his nervousness show.

"A member of the IRA showing nervousness in front of a complete stranger? How becoming of you."

Brian was startled out of his waiting by the soft tone of voice coming from in front of him.

"Well when you're told to meet with someone and then said person is all shadowy with an uneasy feeling about them, maybe we can agree on something, but until then what do you want?" Brian's demand gained a small smirk from the contact.

"Oh I've felt the exact same feelings you do, until I accepted into my new group of friends, but that is neither here nor there. What I want is to know if you still want what the IRA want? Do you still want change?"

Brian hesitantly nodded his head as the uneasy feelings he was getting form this person began to increase until it all came to a point when the person, he noticed that the person was a female, delicately put something on the table.

"Then please, accept this gift."

His hesitancy showed even more as continued to stare at the female in front of him, his own pair of green eyes staring into ice blue eyes.

* * *

 _ **Scene break**_

* * *

"Really? We're meeting up at this place?"

Rebecca looked at her friend with a small glare and she turned towards her best friend for the past several years.

"Look it's not my fault if Jason wants to meet a nightclub, he said he's friends with the owner of this joint, it's convenient for him as he lives only a few hundred metres away plus I have a kind of key pass to let us in easy."

Christine only shook her head at her friend's words and they continued to walk up to the nightclub and as they stopped in front of the bounces of the club, Rebecca handed flashed something small at the bouncer and with a grin, much to the annoyance of the line of people waiting, was let into the club.

"See? Told you that the pass would work."

As the two girls walked into the club, their ears were assaulted by loud, thumping music as a large number of dancers, most were scantily clad, danced their hearts out on the dancefloor, without a single care for their modesty.

"Bec, Chrissy! Come on up." Jason's voice was just able to reach them as they took a glance up and saw that their friend was waving at them to come up stairs with a grin.

As the two girls began to make their way up, to the great surprise, the second floor was a floor that held many hidden rooms, each one covered with curtains to keep their privacy and they could only guess as to what was going on behind each of the closed doors.

"Hello ladies, welcome to this lovely nightclub that my friend has graciously given me access to and any guests of mine, how are we all?" Jason's voice broke them out of the thoughts as they looked towards him and noticed that he was wearing clothes that looked to be made of silk or some other shiny material.

"We've been good Jas, but really? A nightclub? And the name?" Rebecca deadpanned at her friend as the three of them shared a small laugh between them at the strangeness of their location.

Jason led them around several rooms with shut doors where moans could be heard from within until they came to, what the girls surmised as, the main office of the club.

As the three of them entered the room, the girls took in the splendour and excess of everything in it, from the designer seating, to the lush carpet, even the desk seemed to be made of very high quality wood.

"Please, please, grab a seat you two, I would not want to be called a bad friend, even though we are in a nightclub, drink?" Jason cocked his head in mock thought and let out a snort.

At the offer, the two girls looked over at the selection and with bulging eyes, took in what was on offer to them; every type of drink that you could of, both alcoholic and non, was kept in an ice cooler, just waiting to be drunk.

The two girls took their drinks from their friend as the atmosphere around the trio settled into a comfortable silence.

"So why did you ask us to come here, Jason? I mean this is a nightclub of all places, why not just meet us at one of our places?" Rebecca asked after taking a drink.

"Ah yes, we now come to my nefarious and evil plan for you two. But seriously, I just wanted us to have a good time, like friends do? Plus this nightclub is awesome, have you seen some of the stuff that goes on in here?" Jason's eyebrows wiggled as the two girls knew what he was talking about.

Christine couldn't but help let out a snorted at his words. "Well you certainly have your priorities right don't you Jason? Well as long as we're here Bec then we might as well have a good time, I mean we wouldn't want to call Jas here a bad host now would we?"

Rebecca could only laugh at her words and the three of them finished their drinks and began to make their way out of the office and to the club downstairs.

"See? I knew you'd enjoy this get-together. After all, it _has_ to be a good time coming from a club called _The Cult of Pleasure_."

* * *

 **I couldn't think of a good outro to this chapter. Darn Gagnamitt!**

 **Give it a good read, possibly even give a review as they are always welcome and it tells me if you're liking the story and you have yourself a very good day :)**


	17. Chapter 15 - Chaotic Order

_**AN: I am sorry for the very late update to the story but life can kick us down sometimes but then again it can help us right back up again**_ _ **Anyways yes here is the next chapter with a bit of a twist cause we all like them don't we?**_

 **Chapter 15 – Chaotic Order**

"What would you have me do Albus? Tell you every secret that I hold within my mind if only to satiate your desire to know where my godson is?"

This particular argument had come and gone multiple times throughout the holidays ever since the headmaster had reformed the famed Order of the Phoenix in response to Voldemort's return and has asked Sirius to let them use his home as their headquarters.

' _Back and forth they go, yet again.'_ Was the thought that went round in the heads of those around them, some keeping score of Black winning every argument against the headmaster to the chagrin of the members who had served in the previous war and came to regard Albus with the utmost respect.

But despite each argument and consecutive loss that was resulted, Dumbledore kept returning with twinkle in eye, always with a thinly veiled demand disguised as a request, for the location of where Harry was spending his holidays.

"It'd certainly shut the two of you up no doubt," muttered Tonks as she not so subtly glared at the two wizards.

"Now, now Nymphadora as I have stated, I only wish to know to keep an eye on young Harry to make sure that he is safe from harm. After all, with the threat of Voldemort hiding and gathering his power and followers, the risk of Harry coming to harm by a wayward death eater rises." Dumbledore's eyes twinkled as several of the order nodded along with his words.

"Really? Gathering his power and followers? What was it that you said Snape during the last meeting? Oh yes, that's right, _right now at the moment, the dark lord has sequestered himself away, silently muttering to himself as if he were speaking to himself and is_ very _paranoid_. Certainly doesn't seem like Voldemort that we knew from before Dumbledore." Sirius cackled silently to himself in his head as he saw the twinkle in Dumbledore's eyes die down as he repeated his precious spies own words against him.

Despite Sirius' rather well thought out rebuttal and to the dismay of those in the room, not including those who were taking bets for the argument, the great debate of whether or not Sirius should bend to the headmaster's wishes began again.

As the debate began again, Nymphadora Tonks looked around the room to gauge the reactions of each occupant of the room before turning to the only person besides her cousin that might know Harry best, Remus Lupin.

"Remus, surely you have some thought process in what Sirius should do, I mean you did teach him for a whole year conversed with him like a civilised person and not berate him at every step," Tonks said ending loudly so the intended person could hear it.

Tonks grumbled to herself as the person didn't react as she intended but turned back towards her discussion partner.

"Well my dear Tonks, I don't think I am the person you should be asking that too. Yes, I did teach Harry for a year but that doesn't necessarily mean I know him, our relationship at best would be considered student and teacher. After finding out several things about Sirius, his parents and myself, he didn't want to talk to me."

Tonks looked away as she reflected on Lupins words, her hair cycling colours slowly every so often before settling on a dull pink colour.

"Albus enough! Enough of your constant demanding to know where my godson is staying for his holidays, you are his _headmaster_ , not his guardian. Even if I could tell you where he was, I wouldn't. Ever since the end of his third year, I have exchanged letters with him via his own communication style and from that, I have gained a level of trust and a sense of family with him, so I am not going to betray that trust now by telling!" With each statement he made, Sirius gained confidence at beating down the great Albus Dumbledore at wanting to know everything.

"Even if I could, I still wouldn't tell you the location because it's a _secret_. But, he did ask me that _when_ not _if_ , you ask me where that I tell you this; _south-west of Paris where The Man is_. Good luck Albus."

* * *

 _ **Scene break**_

* * *

The hallway leading up to his master's private room was colder than usual as Lucius slowly made his way through the sconce lit room.

Thoughts kept swirling around in his head at what his master might want from him this time as since before his resurrection, he had always been loyal to the dark lord, but ever since that fateful night, the actions and words spoken by the young Potter boy had left him with a sense of… _something_ not right.

Just before Lucius prepared to enter his master's chambers, he stopped before the stained dark oak door and stopped as he began to hear his master begin to gibber and mutter to himself, speaking nonsensical words or mutterings in a language that he hadn't even heard of during his time alive.

"Lucius! Come forth, my friend."

Lucius took a deep breath to compose himself as he strode forwards, only to stop in shock from the sight of his lord and master hunched over his desk, parchment upon parchment littering the desk, floor and even his _bed_ for merlin's sake.

"My lord, I have done as you've asked and gathered what you have ordered with several areas that would be perfect for whatever your plan is, but I still don't understand why you have asked me to do as such." Lucius slowly walked forwards, always keeping in the dark lord's line of sight lest he incur his wrath.

"Ah Lucius my old friend, you need not concern yourself just yet, the items you have gathered are but a piece in the wheel of the plan that _will_ take care of both Dumbledore and Potter with but a wave of my hand." The dark lord bid his servant to leave him as he went back to his small mountain of research.

After bowing and exiting the room, small bits of the memories that Lord Voldemort had either forcibly removed or suppressed made their way to the forefront of Lucius' mind, making him almost whimper as he remembered the feeling of something truly demonic make its presence felt that night.

* * *

 _ **Scene break**_

* * *

"Daphne!" "Tracey!"

Twin squeals of happiness radiated throughout the hall of Greengrass Manor as the two best friends since childhood hug each other firmly with girlish delight.

"Well come on then, you honestly expect me to stay around in the hall all day now can we?" Daphne laughed at her best friend's insistence as she led her upstairs towards her bedroom, where they'd be able to gossip to their heart's content plus do their summer homework away from Daphne's little sister.

As the two girls hunkered away with Tracey slumping herself down onto the plush chair in the corner, she looked around the room and spied something new that she hadn't seen the last time she was around.

"New books in the collection? Seriously Daph? I swear I am this close to calling you out as a closet Ravenclaw and book nerd."

Daphne snorted in an unlady like manner at her friend's words as she gave Tracey a friendly glare in response. "Oh, I do apologise for my wanting to increase my knowledge and keep my place in the top numbers of our schooling."

"Ah yes, we wouldn't want you to lose your precious place at the top with the likes of Potter, Longbottom and Granger. Say, I heard the most outrageous rumour from several of our housemates about both Potter and _you_." Daphne only raised her eyebrow in fake suspense.

"Well?"

"Well, the rumour that I had heard from several of our housemates is that they had heard that you were going to spend some of the holidays with him and his little group." Tracey waited in suspense for how her friend would react with the news.

"If that is the best the Slytherin rumour can come up with, then even listening to the Brown and Patil would be a better way to spend my time. Oh, and I'm not spending any of the holidays with Harry, as he is in France currently." If Tracey's face could get any more disappointed, her face would be like a painted face of a clown.

For several seconds none of them spoke or made a sound, Daphne broke down laughing at her friend's face interrupting the silence.

Tracey pouted in silence as Daphne kept laughing until she was clutching her sides in pain due to so much laughter, and before long, Tracey began to laugh along with her friend with the two of them almost falling to the floor in laughter.

After several minutes of nonstop laughter with breaths in between, the two girls slowly came back down in the realm of sanity before deciding to work on their school work, with some small giggles in between.

A few hours later, after completing assignment after assignment, Tracey became stuck with a part of her newest assignment, ancient runes, and had been stuck for the past half hour.

She looked over at Daphne, who had been completing her own work in complete silence with a determined brow and intense focus, then over to her friend's book collection and was about to ask if she could look through them for assistance but she was interrupted by Astoria.

"Daphne, mother wants you downstairs for something or other."

As Daphne turned away from her work and left Tracey to her own, Tracey's eyes began to wander over to her friend's private collection of books, knowing she shouldn't look through but as much as she wanted to resist the temptation, she quickly got up and walked over to the books.

"Okay, which one of you is going to help me today eh? _Ancient beasts_? No. _Stern Codex_? Now that just sounds weird. _Hierarchy of magical beasts_? No. _Demonium et vos_? What? A-ha! _Runes of any type_ , perfect." With thick, black book in hand, Tracey quickly walked back over to her homework and began as quickly as she could, find any help with the answer.

To her surprise, Tracey quickly found the answer that she had been looking for and wrote down what she needed before almost running with the book to place it back in its correct place.

Just before she walked back into her room, Daphne became silent as she heard footsteps quickly walk around her room and closed her eyes slightly in suspicion. With a slow walk as to not make any noise, Daphne slowly opened her door to see Tracey sit quickly back down in her chair before moving her head close to her work.

"Being sneaky are we Trace?" Tracey almost jumped out of her seat as Daphne spoke and glared an evil glare at her laughing friend.

As the two friends went back to their school work, Daphne's eyes slowly made their way over to the where her private collection of books lay, with one of the latches on the side hanging precariously close to falling. With a small smirk aimed at the latch, she returned back to her own work, with a new objective set for herself, that included her best friend.

* * *

 _ **Scene break**_

* * *

Resting upon a normal looking hill stood a seemingly normal house, normal in the sense if you take a house shaped like a rook normal. But in this seemingly 'normal' rook-shaped house dark knowledge was being kept here, a knowledge that in the past created a great calamity but only for a single family.

Down in the basement of the rook-shaped house, an adolescent girl knelt in the exact centre of the room, eyes cast wide over the room as if watching a scene play out in front of her, a woman trying to shield a young girl away from an overwhelmingly bright light and then nothing, repeating over and over again until it came to the now teenaged girl kneeling in the room.

Luna watched the scene of the day when her mother had been killed and her mind subsequently opening up to the sea that was fate.

She signed in remembrance as if she could still remember the feeling of her mother's warm hugs, her small kisses on her brow as she smiled down at her whenever she caught her reading one of her fantasy novels, but it all vanished in a flit of a thought as the feeling of excruciating phantom pain filled her head.

Luna only shook her head slightly to clear the cobwebs from the memories as she looked down onto the floor below her with a critical eye, looking over her carefully drawn runes, each with its own special purpose but when put together, it allowed the caster's mind to be drawn further down the rabbit hole and peer into the future for _very_ specific reasons.

After ensuring that every rune was perfectly written for the specific action she was about to take, she took a deep breath in as she waved both her wand and hand in front of her.

" **Ritzch….vasktla….gorbsch….vastlu…tzeen!"** With every word of the spell Luna spoke, the air began to get thicker and thicker until it all came to head when a tear in the very fabric of reality tore into being in front of her.

" _ **Search till your minds content little oracle,"**_ the softly spoken words of the Fateweaver at the back of her mind rung in her head as she fell deeper into her trance while looking into the future.

For what seemed like an eternity but in fact was only a few minutes went by before images of the future began to unravel in front of her then ravel back up as it continued to pass the currents of time.

Visions of skirmishes to come, battles to come and then wars to come assaulted her mind as she continued to her journey to search for the enemies that may come to oppose the gods of chaos.

Visions of sorrow to come, hope to come and then pleasure to come assaulted her mind next as she got closer and closer to her goal.

But then the visions began to shift and darken before her very eyes, _´This shouldn't be possible, I drew the runes perfectly and combined with my own abilities this should- '_

Her search came to a grinding halt as new visions overtook the old ones, visions of _blood, multitudes of death and overwhelming hatred_ lanced into her mind's eyes, pain bursting through whatever barriers she had set up protecting her.

As the visions kept her preoccupied, she did not realise until the very last moment that she was not alone in her search into the visions of the future, someone or some _thing_ had hitched a ride along with her.

" _ **It has…certainly…been an….age since I had….sensed a presence as yours….little witch!"**_

When the words penetrated her mind, Luna's astral body frozen in shock as she tried to comprehend the dark and evil feeling words that the thing had spoken.

" _ **I know the scent….of the warp anywhere! Soon little witch….soon you will all…DIE! RUN!….RUN!…RUN!"**_

With as much speed as she could muster, Luna backtracked her way through the weaving mess of webs that represented the future and returned back to her body with a force that knocked her over onto her back.

With a deep breath with a small bit of fear in it, Luna slowly stood up from her lying down position to collect her thoughts on what had just transpired and turned towards the door leading out of the basement, but not before freezing in cold terror as the dulled sound of maddening _laughter_ rung around the room.

* * *

 _ **Scene break**_

* * *

' _Why couldn't I have been born into a different family?'_

Ginny's thoughts kept going around in circles, coming back to that one thought as she listened to her mother yell and shout at Fred and George, _again_ , for apparating within with house.

Just after the summer began, what she thought was going to be a usual day for her began with her getting up in the morning, going down for breakfast but quickly stopping in shock at the image of Albus Dumbledore sitting down on one of the chairs that surrounded the kitchen table.

Soon after, discussions were had and a few hours later, she and the rest of the Weasley's that were living at home, had been transported to what was now considered the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix, a legendary group of witches and wizards that were brought together to fight Voldemort during the first war.

' _If_ this _, is the group that helped stopped Voldemort before Harry destroyed him, then it's no wonder he was winning.'_

Every time that a meeting of the order was happening, she and the rest of the underage ones had been relegated to the upstairs with just wonders including but not limited to, bedroom, bedroom, Black Family Library where only select people can go in or another bedroom.

Ever since she had entered her room and sat down on the floor, since she was all by herself thankfully, she had been following the instructions that had been given to her by Neville to further her training and power base.

' _Alright Gin, remember how it went again; breath in and then out. Feel the sensation of crawling underneath the barrier that prevents the gift of Grandfather Nurgle from being given and then give it an opening. Okay, what does that mean?'_ Ginny concentrated on each part of the lesson carefully and tried to focus on the end part.

"Give it an opening, what so I slice my hand open and let it bleed for several minutes? No thank you. Hmm." With each thought that Ginny had, another took its place before the answer hit her.

"Give it an opening. Okay then, here goes nothing," with a deep breath and a focused concentration on the feeling of _something_ crawling underneath her skin, Ginny focused both her magic and warp powers around the centre of her palm, willing it to open and let the gift out. As she began to feel her palm ever _so_ _slowly_ peel back a millimetre at a time, a loud bang interrupted her training, causing her lesson to be a bust but not without bearing fruit.

As Ginny looked towards the door, she could he the faint buzzing of a fly around the room, a fly that _hadn't_ been in the room beforehand as she had made sure there weren't any distractions that would interrupt her lesson.

With a satisfied smile and a jubilant heart, Ginny opened the door to see what had made such a loud commotion that led to the screeching from the portrait of Mrs Black and just as she thought, standing there giving Sirius Black as strong of a hug as he could manage, Harry Potter had entered headquarters with Hermione just behind, smirking at the looks the Order were giving them.

* * *

 _ **With Sirius arguing on the side of his godson, will it prove useful to bring in more of the order to Harry's side or will they stay with the headmaster? With Voldemort becoming more paranoid and more obsessive over the research that he doing, when will come to a head and will it be the all-powerful stroke of fortune that he needs to wipe out both Dumbledore AND Harry in one swoop? Just what was the entity that Luna had encountered within the warp? Will it become a threat big enough to warrant the attention of the unholy trinity of the dark gods? Find out next time on The Affliction!**_

 **Give it a good read, possibly even give a review as they are always welcome and it tells me if you're liking the story and you have yourself a very good day** **J**


	18. Chapter 16 - Orderly Chaos

_**AN: Whenever you're asked a question, whether it be in school or at work, if it be an easy or hard, just scream out as loud as you can: THE MULTIVERSE! as your reasoning for whatever the question may be.**_

 _ **Also there's a second AN down the bottom of the chapter**_ _ **Enjoy!**_

* * *

 **Chapter 16 – Orderly Chaos**

Far away from the headquarters of the Order, Harry and Hermione were spending part of their holiday in France at the request of Fleur, who had offered the summer home to house them for the holidays.

Before settling down into the house though, both Harry and Hermione had requested something of their own to Fleur; if they could bring several 'magic' aware muggles.

Now normally Fleur would be very much opposed to such an idea but lately, her thoughts on the muggle population had begun to change slightly. Ever since she had sought out to find the book that Harry had told her to seek had changed her mindset somewhat.

"'Ow iz it zat zees muggles can see, let alone study magic 'Arry?"

Harry's eyes didn't leave the diagrams on the tome he was reading as Fleur's words reached him.

"You have read some of the book that I suggested yes? Well while they cannot see magic nor can they study it, this group of people study a power that by now, you know as the warp."

Harry could see a bit of recognition light up in her eyes as she processed his answer.

"Then tell me, what is your perspective of ze warp?"

"Change for those who want it, and for those that want it Fleur, they must show that they have the drive for what me and mine study. It is similar to magic in a way but much more powerful. I wanted to change my life from what it was, to what it is now and I did it through dedication."

Harry could see that his words had an effect on her as she sat down in a chair in the corner of the room and took out the book to read quietly.

As Harry's head turned back towards the book, he was interrupted by a brief flash of fire as his two owls landed on the table.

"And what do you two bring me this day I wonder?"

As he stared into both P'tarix and Xirap'ts' eyes, he delved into their very minds as he sought out the news that he had them sent out for, regarding several of his plans to further the plots of Tzeentch.

' _Well, well, it seems that they have agreed and have pledged support, pockets are spreading through different regions. Everything is going as it is fated to. Also, it seems as though we shall have guests coming.'_

As Harry finished gleaming this new knowledge, an astral image of Sarah flashed into his mind stating that they had guests.

"It seems as though we shall be having guests and we wouldn't want to keep them waiting for the entirety of our party." The group shared a small chuckle between them as he sent an astral message towards where Hermione had been for the past fortnight, he went back to back to his research.

* * *

 _ **Scene break**_

* * *

Throughout the club music was pumping loudly, alcohol was flowing from every tap, illicit pharmaceuticals were being given out and scantily clad women were dancing both in box cages above the dancing patrons and on the floor below.

In addition to the cages and dance floor, the club had an upstairs floor that catered towards those who wanted a more, _physical_ , experience at the club that added to the experience and atmosphere of debauchery that was permeating everywhere.

However, at the very end of the top level, one that was only reserved for those who were privileged enough to enter, lay a room that should anyone go through, they would experience a sensation of their minds being cast adrift in a sea of endless pleasure alongside beings that held a sort of unnatural or ethereal beauty to them.

In reality, they just had an excess amount of alcohol and illicit substances that when combined with the powers of Slaanesh, would send them into a state where they would just want to party till they dropped or wanted to celebrate the being that gave them such a high.

Amongst the copious amount of half-naked bodies, opulent pillowed couches with banners draped across them stood a raised dais that held a fully naked couple, positioned in a way that gave the both of them the maximum amount of pleasure possible to achieve.

" **Mmm, you are my most favourite of this lot my dear sweet Lisa."**

Lisa moaned aloud as her partner suckled on her nipple with even more gusto than she had before, throwing her mind into more of a delirium as she reached the peak of her climax and came down with a thunderous crash.

As she looked into the eyes of her lover, Hermione sighed as she breathed deep the sensations and smells of ecstasy and excess that was currently happened around her. Several of the bodies that writhed in pleasure had already reached their peak and several more were beginning their exquisite journey into the final climb.

She let out another moan as a set of fingers slithered down and entered her body once more, moving with a slowness and sensuality that could only be described as sinfully unholy before speeding up to match the mouth that had latched onto her right nipple.

For what seemed like hours but was only a few minutes flew by as the creeping feeling of the next peak came into sight and was about to begin to roughen things up a bit to raise the fun side of things before she was _very_ rudely interrupted by the face of not the deliciously firm flesh that she currently held in her arms, but the face of Harry, telling her that she was needed elsewhere that didn't sound at all as fun.

With a soft growl and glare at where Harry's head was, Hermione vanished from her pseudo-throne and reappeared, clean and clothed, next to Harry and glared at him with darkened pink eyes at his rudeness, leaving behind a chagrined Lisa, who squeaked when was Hermione vanished from her under.

" **Really? You're mad at me for disrupting your fun time?"**

Her only response was to ignore him for several minutes for responding. **"I** _ **was**_ **in the middle of something thank you very much. Would you have enjoyed it if I interrupted you in an important moment?"**

" **True. But it is the time we appeared back in England dear sister, we are due for guests and we wouldn't want to disappoint them."**

Harry turned around and with his group, exited the house and began to walk towards the edge of the property, to where the expected guests had arrived out of thin air.

"So this is where that cryptic message Harry gave to Sirius sent us to? Looks nothing more than a rundown building Moody, could the Headmaster have gotten it wrong?"

"Dumbledore doesn't make mistakes Nymphadora, the reason why it could be looking like a rundown building, is because of the numerous wards around the house. Anti-apparition, anti-port key, notice-me-not with more if not dozens layered together." Remus' words raised several eyebrows at the level of protection that their quarry was under.

As the group of wizards and witches began to spread out slightly to see where the limits of the protections went, the group within the protections just stared at them.

"For a man that has legends that speak about his constant spouting of constant vigilance combined with paranoia, right now it would be _very_ easy to eliminate him," Harry spoke softly as he walked ever so softly right up to Moody, just in front of him but far enough to still conceal his presence.

"Or perhaps we just don't want to be found just yet. Also, they aren't what you'd consider normal magical protections." When Harry began speaking, the entire group of Order members, including Moody, jumped back in shock as they realised how close they had come to the property's protections.

"To what does a retired auror, a wolf, a shifter and co want with little old me?" Harry looked at each member of the opposing group with a calculated look, as if not looking at them but _into_ them.

The Order members' eyes widened as they looked past the young man in front of them and realised that he wasn't alone as they had thought beforehand.

"Careful Potter, how do you know that we are who we really are eh boy? At least make sure we are the actual people before you casually dismiss us." Moody's casual threat did nothing to unnerve Harry and his group.

"You think I wouldn't be able to tell who was who within your group? Delusions Mr Moody, even if you weren't the real you, you could not take me."

"Is that a threat boy?" Moody's fake eye had firmly set on Harry's form with his hand almost twitching, ready to call his wand if things went south.

Despite Mad Eye Moody's love for shouting about constant vigilance, he hadn't realised that while he was doing his impression of growling lion, the group in front of him began to spread out slowly.

"Mr Moody, as much as you'd desire it, I don't- _Fulgur!"_ In a split second, everyone had been watching the exchange between the two males before a shout of pain and a body being blasted back by a crack of lightning broke them from their trance.

While Tonks and Remus ran over to the slightly smoking Moody, Harry stood stock still with wand in hand. "You wanted a demonstration, Mr Moody. Should you request another, not even the changeling and nor the wolf can assist." Tonks froze for a second as she listened to Harry's words.

"Mad-Eye, I know what you're thinking and you're wrong, only the real Harry Potter has ever called me that and no one else. It's the real him."

Moody only snarled slightly at her words and picked himself back up and glared with his real eye. "Only someone with a hidden agenda fires at a wizard whilst they're talking. A real wizard would at least humour them with a duel first."

"There is no such thing as a real wizard though is there Moody? But as such, the two of us are in luck, you have come for me and I did promise to spend some time with Sirius as a godson should do with his godfather with Hermione involved so they can gossip about my social/love life. Shall we get going then? We wouldn't want to keep the old man waiting." Harry stared right at Moody, almost daring him to try something while the Order members cautiously walked closer towards him with hands on wands as if he was a dangerous criminal.

"Lupin, grab a hold of Granger while Tonks holds Potter. All ready? Alright then grab a hold of the port key and in three, two, one." With a wisp of wind, the group suddenly vanished, leaving the rest to carry on with their instructions and in Fleur's case, to carry on studying the thick book she was gifted.

* * *

 _ **Scene break**_

* * *

Across the country in what many called the City of Love, the French were going about their lives as to them it was a normal day, with couples showing their affection for another in public and tourists travelling via transport to see the wondrous potions Paris had to offer.

In the _Gare de Saint-Michel_ train station, while both tourist and citizen alike were waiting for the next train, everything went quiet for a moment, as if time stood still in the eye of a tornado, as several men dressed in hooded jackets walked to the edge of the platform and turned around.

As the other people that were waiting for the train stared at them in confusion, only a scant few eyes widened in terror as they figured out what they intended to do but were powerless to stop them.

" _ALLAHU AKBAR!"_

Sound swept back into the tunnel with a resounding _BOOM_ with the _screams_ of the dead or wounded with some people just looked around, not knowing what had happened from one second to the next.

Later that day, as an Islamic terrorist group would take credit for the attack, jubilant in the knowledge that they had proven themselves worthy in the eyes of their god, no one could account to where the markings on the tunnel wall had come from.

* * *

 _ **Scene break**_

* * *

"What next to put in I wonder. What say you little one? Perhaps a piece rotten eagle owl flesh? Or maybe a putrid bear kidney?"

The excitable nurgling looked up with adoration as it realised that the creator was directing a question at him and not one of the others. With a small chitter of noise, the nurgling pointed its misshaped, rotten claw towards one of the creator's fingers.

"One of my fingers you say? Well, that certainly would bring a spice to things wouldn't it." With a loving stroke of his hand across the head of the nurgling, he grabbed the knife that was on the table beside him and sliced his right index finger.

As Neville watched his now fingerless stub, the finger that he sliced off dropped into the cauldron in front of him, bubbling with putrid green fumes and looking like something that had come out of the world's worst toilet system, but multiplied by an endless number.

With a small chuckle as he watched his little ones either dance around him in a circle or try to cup some of the overflow from the cauldron, Neville absentmindedly flexed his hand, regrowing his missing finger without a single blemish, at least on the outside.

"No luck thus far?"

Neville turned his head towards Susan, who had been staying over at the Longbottom manor for some of the holidays, and shook his head in the negative.

"But I am getting so close, I can just feel it coursing through my veins my dear, just waiting to be released and to be gifted to those who desperately cry out in anguish." Neville's statement caused the nurgling around them to dance even faster with more foul and repulsive liquids to splatter onto the floor.

" _ **Never fear my champion, as with everything that atrophies with time, it will come eventually."**_ Listening to the words of the Plague Father have the both of them a feeling of being in the embrace of a loving grandfather who always had some wise words to always listen to.

Just before Susan was about to suggest something else, she was interrupted by Neville's grandmother banging on the greenhouses door rather loudly.

"Neville? Neville!Oh, merlin damn that boy sometimes. I know you're still in the Neville, now come out of there, I have something important to discuss with you." The shrill, demanding voice grated on their ears as Neville turned towards the door, the illusionary magic on the side of his face beginning to fade, leaving behind the site of rotten, pustule-ridden flesh and a glare that threatened to reduce the door and the woman behind it, to a disease ridden corpse.

* * *

 _ **Scene break**_

* * *

As the port key deposited them onto a soft patch of grass, Moody had them up and almost running because of how fast he chose to walk and leave those behind to follow him as quick as they could.

While walking at their own pace, Harry and Hermione looked around the area that the port key had deposited them to. "So this is where the Black family has their seat of power? I must admit, I never thought a pureblood family such as theirs would choose such a mundane locale."

Tonks and Remus shared a looked between them and gave the area they were in a quick sweep of their eyes, almost as if they were searching for eavesdroppers that could overhear them.

"Well considering the Black family has gone down in the world of purebloods Harry, I wouldn't necessarily count out the family home. Powerful wards and protections cover it so discount some of the family if you want, but don't discount the place they grew up in, the Blacks _were_ a powerful once." Tonks said with a small grimace, remembering what her mother had told her the tales of when she grew up in the family.

Before Harry could say anything more, Moody thrust a piece of paper towards him with a grunt, clearly expecting him to read it quickly. "I hate to disappoint you Moody but that is not necessary. Sirius already let me in on the secret utilising Black family magic."

Almost the entire group stared at him with incredulous eyes before following him as he walked up towards where the hidden house lay, knocked slightly on the door before casually entering with a small smirk in place.

"Dreary home sweet home eh?"

With a smile that almost split his face wide open, Harry almost ran towards Sirius and hugged him with a strength that slightly surprised Sirius as he certainly didn't seem that strong last year.

"Welcome back Harry." Just before Sirius could say any more, Tonks ruined the moment by tripping over troll foot, leading to a portrait on the wall to begin screeching and shouting at anything that came within her vision.

"Ah, it seems you managed to bring young Harry and Miss Granger back from their holidays. How about we retire to the kitchen for some tea?" The voice of Albus Dumbledore further ruined the moment for Harry as the rest of the group chose to follow the old man's words.

As Harry and Hermione walked past the portrait, they casually looked around and with some surprise, noticed Ginny Weasley standing at the top of the stairs, watching with hidden amusement.

With every member of the reallocation party sitting in the now slightly overcrowded kitchen, Harry decided to take the chair directly opposite of where Dumbledore has chosen, amusement clearly plastered on his face as he saw the disgruntled or annoyed looks from the order members and slight amusement from Sirius at his decision of seat.

"Well, it seems as if our presence has interrupted something, my dear Hermione. Do continue your meeting of the Order, don't let our appearance hold you up or anything."

At his words, grumbles began to spread throughout the crowd, believing he was trying to be a nuisance because of his arrogance _i.e. Snape_ , or the very limited side was small bouts of laughter _because_ of his aura of nonchalance.

Either way, Albus could feel the beginnings of a headache coming on from the arrival of the prophesied one and his companion.

* * *

 _ **Now that the influence of the warp has grown even more to inspire terror across Europe, how far will it go before any measures can be taken to halt its progress? With Fleur being influenced, how far will it go? Will it spread further across her species? What was Harry researching during his stay at the summer house? What was Neville trying to create with Susan in the cauldron before being interrupted? Find out next time on The Affliction!**_

 _ **AN2: I have put a poll in my profile about which race you, the readers, would like to see in the story in the future and I'm looking forward to seeing what the results might be.**_ _ **  
**_

 **Give it a good read, possibly even give a review as they are always welcome and it tells me if you're liking the story and you have yourself a very good day :)**


	19. Chapter 17 - Still Human Inside

_**AN: Is it strange that one of the thoughts that continue to buzz around my head is why we choose to follow the alphabet the way it is? I mean there aren't any laws that say we HAVE to, right?**_

* * *

 **Chapter 17 – Still Human Inside**

Albus stared at the young man and woman that were sitting directly opposite him, almost as if they didn't have a care in the world but he could obviously tell that behind that calm façade the two put out, they were enjoying the chaos that sitting in the room alone was causing.

"Indeed you have my boy, we were just about to start our meeting so if you'd kindly go upstairs with Miss Granger, you can come back downstairs afterwards but for now, if you'd be so kind?" Albus smiled at him with a twinkle in his eye but just before he turned his head back towards Severus for his report, Harry responded.

"No thank you."

At Harry's words, several pairs of eyes widened at his audacity for refusing the headmaster with several more beginning to grumble about his attitude and Snape chiming in to have his say. "Your arrogance knows no bounds doesn't it Potter. Do as you're told like a good little boy and remove yourself before someone else does it for you."

"You try that Snivellus and maybe we might have a little problem on our hands." Sirius spoke up in the defence of his godson with his hand moving to his side, just in case Snape tried something but was stopped by Dumbledore standing up to stem any further actions.

"Now Harry, I know that you feel as if rebelling might be the appropriate course for a young man such as yourself but this meeting of the Order is for those of age only. Important business is discussed with sensitive information talked about that I'm afraid isn't appropriate for someone as young as yourself."

Both Harry and Hermione's eyes imperceptibly narrowed at Dumbledore's words. "Sensitive information? Let me take a wild guess, Voldemort correct? Thought so. Would it not be prudent to include someone who is a fixation from said wizard?"

The majority of the crowd flinched at the dark lord's name with several more shifting in their seats. "My boy I want you to continue to have a childhood and keep your innocence before becoming burdened by this information."

"Oh headmaster, despite your desire for me to keep my so called innocence, it was ripped away from me a long time ago. Would you like some references? One, eleven, twelve and fourteen."

Besides Hermione, Sirius was the only one who recognised what he was referring to as he said the numbers while staring dead straight into Dumbledore's eyes, almost daring him to try to read his mind again.

"First it's when I was but a year old, then first year through to third but you stopped at year four. I wonder what made you stop trying to control my whereabouts headmaster? Alright let's make a deal shall we? Allow myself and Hermione to stay just this once, we won't speak without permission and we won't intrude your Order meetings again, deal?" Several people gave him glares at his accusation of Albus trying to control him.

"Again Potter you're just like your father, an ego as large as his arrogance, It's a saving grace that you could fit inside this room let alone through the door. Headmaster might I suggest that you force the brat into his place and forcefully remove him from this room?" Snape turned towards the headmaster with his suggestion, ignoring the outraged faces of both Sirius and Remus.

For several minutes, Albus just stared at the young Potter and tried to figure out what sort of game he was playing, _if_ he was playing a game at all or just the usual teenage rebellion that he had witnessed for decades since he became headmaster.

After staying silent for a few more moments, with his mind weighing the benefits of allowing the boy to listen to a single meeting, Albus never realised that with his thoughts following such a linear pattern and sharply focused, a _foreign presence_ had latched the desired answer and let it go to combine itself with Albus'.

"Alright Harry, I shall allow you this one time to sit in on the Order meeting and no more." While several voices began to shout at the absurdness of his allowance, namely Molly Weasley and Severus, he never noticed that Harry and Hermione eyed each ever so slightly with veiled amusement.

"Kingsley, please give us your report on the muggles." Kingsley stood up and took a deep breath in. "With Snapes report of Voldemort being out of action, it still hasn't reduced the amount of small scale attacks that muggles are dealing with. In my overhearing of the Prime Ministers discussions with several other important muggles, several entire towns worth of people have disappeared with only minute traces of what happened."

"Could Voldemort be kidnapping them for some dark ritual perhaps?" One of the braver member orders spoke up from the back.

"It could be but I don't think he would do such a thing without at least giving a hint of what might be happening."

" _If_ this isn't Voldemort's doing, do the muggles have any idea who or what could be doing such a crime?" Dumbledore queried with a concerned look on his face.

No one could offer up any suggestions that might make a lick of sense or even feasibility to the question posed by the headmaster. After Kingsley's report, Tonks was next but something concerned several others was she grabbed something from her jacket pocket with a nervous face.

"As you all know, with You-Know-Who returning and staying in the shadows, rumours are going around that he's trying to recruit aurors into his services. So I did a little digging but didn't come to the result that I was going to get. In my findings, I found this." As she gently dropped what she had onto the table, everyone that closed in around it drew back at the feeling of not-rightness radiating from it.

Albus drew his wand and with a silent spell, lifted the item up for all to see. The item in question was a pendant with an eight-pointed star, with one side of edges being longer than the other side.

"You say you found this whilst trying to find evidence of Voldemort's recruitment attempts Nymphadora?" Tonks didn't even reproach him at her given name as he took in every detail and committed it to memory.

With the atmosphere of the meeting reaching a low point due to the discovery of the necklace, Dumbledore closed the meeting before anything more drastic could happen and bid everyone a goodnight, leaving quickly through the floo with pendant securely tucked away in his pocket.

Watching as the Order members baring the Weasleys, Lupin and Tonks left with a slight slump of the shoulders at the darker atmosphere, Harry gracefully stood up and followed Sirius out of the kitchen, wondering what he had up his sleeve this time.

* * *

 _ **Scene break**_

* * *

As Harry followed Sirius up the stairs to the second floor of the house and down the hallway, they stopped in front of a door that had Sirius place his hand on for a second or two with some emotion on his face.

"Despite what Albus wants by placing you with the youngest Weasley boy, _'He should be placed with people those of his gender and age to build his character'_ I believe he said. I, however, know that you and he don't get along that well so I decided, being the loving and proper godfather that I am, that you should be placed in my brother's old room for your own or any special witch you might want over, wink wink nudge nudge." Sirius nudged Harry in jest with the two of them having a small laugh at his suggestion.

"Sirius as much as I would certainly enjoy to indulge you in your wish for me to bring back a witch and have my way with her, I doubt Moody or Dumbledore would _allow_ me to have a strange and anonymous person over that they have no knowledge about whatsoever." All he got was a scoff in response and an indication to sit down on the bed.

"Harry, I wasn't exactly going to bring this up in such a fashion because I wanted you to have at least a night off without interrogation or of the such, but honestly? You can have _anyone_ you wish over as company, you don't need to listen to Mad-Eye or Albus because what I saw back at the end of your third year, I most certainly doubt there is a single witch or wizard that could stop you. Sure you may look like your father but personality wise, all I see is all Lily in you."

Harry only sat on the bed listening intently as Sirius continued with his speech.

"When you and your two friends burst into the Shrieking Shack that night with those strange creatures, I thought that after so long of nothing but despair, I finally had hope that things would change, that I would finally be able to do what I had been charged to do as your godfather and care for you. But it seemed as if fate conspired against us once again and it didn't go to plan." Despite his intense focus on Sirius, as he was speaking, Harry knew deep down that one of his greatest hopes was to have a that full familial connection with him despite his dark allegiance.

"And even when those dementors showed up and you summoned those creatures again, I've never felt anything like that in all my days as a wizard, they honestly had the look of demons to them. The stuff that only Voldemort was _rumoured_ to tamper with but to see it done by my godson? I always knew that from the first moment I held you as a baby, you were born and destined to become something bigger than the rest of us, that you would go on to bring proper change and hope against the dark."

Sirius grew silent for several moments as Harry could clearly see he was trying to find the best way to put his thoughts in words that sounded right.

"What I'm trying to say is, after everything that's happened, with all the trials you've had to face ever since you were placed with the Dursley's, I will always be there for you and to help you whenever I can Harry." With that, Harry took Sirius in and hugged him as hard as he could, becoming slightly surprised as he felt immense elation and happiness that Sirius accepted everything despite the unease he felt from it.

As he drew let Sirius go and drew back a bit, he was further surprised when he felt some moisture in his eyes before he wiped it away and let out a small laugh.

"Despite having a plan for every scenario Sirius, there are always somethings that I can't predict and you've just managed that." Sirius gave off a bark of laughter at Harry's words. "Well considering you're a Ravenclaw, I wouldn't put it past you having attempted to thoroughly analyse and query everything."

"Right then! Enough of this mushy stuff. Shall we go downstairs because this house has a basement which I kind of converted into a duelling room to see a duel between you and the ever so lovely Miss Granger." As the two of them began to make their way downstairs after having their heart to heart, they were joined by Hermione, who had been drafted by Sirius to see a duel, Tonks who also wanted to witness some of magic that her cousin had boasted his godson could do and Ginny who had decided to do something better with her time than listen to her brother complain about anything.

* * *

 _ **Scene break**_

* * *

"Coming to the next patient, his case is one of those most curious cases. Loving husband, doting father of three girls with a stable job and then one day, he just ups and has a psychiatric breakdown." The group of doctors looked into the secure room to view the patient in question.

"Mr Jenkins is one of those that came to us in an unfortunately unwilling manner about a few months ago, with his medical file stating that one he began to see strange things and hear random whispers in his ears at night. Common characteristics of drug-induced schizophrenia or a psychosis." The doctor leading the group began to knock slightly on the window of the room.

"Mr Jenkins, how are we feeling today?"

The group couldn't hear the response as he began to jabber and mutter to himself. "Don't worry my friends, for special cases such as Mr Jenkins, we have a built-in microphone in his room to allow us to hear what he is saying." At the doctor's signal, a security guard with them turned the microphone on with the volume set on full.

" _WhydonttheySTOPwhy_ _ **cant**_ _theystop_ _ **THEYARECOMING**_ _withtheirARMIESOFMONSTERSandcreaturesofsuch_ _ **NIGHTMARES**_ _withgapingmawsopenand_ **ready** _formoreFLESHandbloodcomingfromthesoulsof_ **INNOCENTS** _whycantthetauntsstop-"_ The microphone shut off at the doctor's signal.

"Mr Jenkins, it seems, keeps on repeating the same phrases over and over again, sometimes with screaming in between. Whenever he has a moment free of his speaking, we allow him to draw as sometimes it does help some other patients here." The group of doctors began to walk down a hallway and settled into a common room, allowing everyone to take breather from what they had seen.

For a good half hour, the group settled into an uneasy silence, some nursing teas in an attempt to calm their nerves, some drinking coffee with the same desire and some taking drags of cigarettes in shock at Mr Jenkins ramblings.

After the long, uneasy silence, one of the younger doctors suddenly remembered something that the lead doctor had said about the patient. "Doctor Matthews, you said that you sometimes give the patients the opportunity to draw in an attempt to help them. Do you perchance, have some drawings done by Mr Jenkins?"

Doctor Matthews slowly gave what many of the other doctors after the visit would call a nervous nod in response the young woman's question. "Yes my dear, I do have _some_ of his drawings and that is only due to the forethought of preparing for that question. Just remember, _all of you_ , that we strive our best to help those in need at Bethlem Royal, but there are just some people who are beyond our earthly help."

With his piece said, Doctor Matthews laid down a folder that contained only a sparse few number of sheet of paper, each one with edges blacked out with only hints at what lay on the centre stage of each piece.

"What… _Lovecraftian_ …horrors has that madman drawn!?" One of the doctors whispered as the group took in what Mr Jenkins had drawn, with several of their fellow doctors running for the lavatories to throw up in horror and disgust at the depictions.

"Forget Lovecraft Dennis, what _demons_ has that nutter got in his head." Jacob, a more diehard religious man than his friend Dennis snarled in response to the rhetoric question, with each and every one of the people in the room wondering the same thing: _what demons had infested the mind of such an innocent man?_

* * *

 _ **Scene break**_

* * *

"Oh my friend, do not fall into despair for this is a joyous occasion! You my special friend, you are being offered to live again, to live as the hidden guiding hand to guide those who are in despair at the empty, dark cold space that has been directing your mind for some time now." The smile on the cloaked female before him should've dissuaded him about accepting help from her, but he was about to die from sickness, what harm as there in hearing her out?

"How…. could you…. save me…from…. this sickness? You're…. but a girl." The young monk who had been training for the majority of his life before contracting a sickness gathered his strength and sent the young woman a sceptical look.

"Like you once believed, I serve a higher power that is not of this realm. A power that wants to give his gifts to anyone and everyone who is willing to accept it. The best part? He treats us all as his own children, each and every one of us is a son or daughter to the great Grandfather." Her honeyed words took root in his mind as another wheezing cough racked his body, signalling that his end was coming close.

As he began to feel his body begin the process of shutting down, he waited for the flashes of memory of his life flashing before his eyes, or so the American tourists had told him, but became distressed when nothing but darkness started to enshroud his vision, creeping closer to consume his vision.

With what seemed like his ever last breath in his body, he cried a beg for the young girl to help him, to save him from what seemed like a lie of happiness of an afterlife that he had been lied about.

"Oh my friend, do not fret about the darkness for I welcome you in the embrace of the great Grandfather!" With a final breath racking his body, the bones inside the young monk's body began to break, patches of skin began to blister and fester into pustules, leaving his body looking like someone who had died from the black death.

Leaving the recent deceased in the streets of New Delhi, the young woman turned around to look back at her hidden companion.

"You did well today my dear, with each new disciple of disease, another child of Nurgle is welcomed into the family." A small smile of rotten teeth flashed in front of her before the mouth closed.

As the duo began to make their way further into the side alley and into the shadows, the young woman eyed her companion, as if she was looking for something even she did not know yet.

"If you are wondering about what I think you're wondering about, then you should not worry my dear, the magic will hold up until I deem otherwise. With such a connection that I have, none but those equal or higher can see through it." Her male companion gave a quiet chuckle as he noticed a rat scurrying by.

By now they had come to the deepest and most shadowed part of the alley, making it the perfect location for what they planned to do next.

"Ever since Harry and Hermione was relocated, Papa Nurgle decided that is was the best time to increase his presence amongst the population and further his presence within the warp. Both Harry and Hermione have been building their power base, including their own personal cult, it is now our turn to do so my dear Susan." The now joyfully grinning Neville held out his hand to Susan and with a sudden implosion, burst into a swarm of flies, flying off into the air and leaving behind them the formation of their own special cult.

* * *

 _ **With Harry and Hermiones display of rebellion in front of the 'legendary' Order of the Phoenix, will it come back to bite them later on? Sirius has proven that despite having the architect of fate in his head, Harry still has some humanity left within his being, but should something happen to Sirius, will it last? Or will he submit himself fully to the dark powers that be? With Harry and Hermione being nestled away by the Headmaster, Nurgle has chosen to make his champion make vie for power, how far will it reach before being stemmed by the other champions? Find out next time of The Affliction!**_

 **Give it a good read, possibly even give a review as they are always welcome and it tells me if you're liking the story and you have yourself a very good day :)**


	20. Chapter 18 - Home Sweet Home

_**AN: Have you ever had that moment in time where you're either sitting or standing, planning something and then when you go to plan something for the future, something just CLICKS and you have this holy shit this has to be providence or fate moment?**_

 **Jamin P. Rose:** Oh it is but some pieces still need to be moved and some plays need to be played before it comes. Also blood? You never know…

* * *

 **Chapter 18 – Home Sweet Home?**

"Originally the basement was designed for when the Black family was a lot darker in nature and so they built this place a torture chamber for their enemies, lovely I know." As Sirius led them down the stairs towards the basement, several torches sprang to life as they drew near.

"Well what do think of it? The walls have been spelled _heavily_ to be as secure as possible with several specialist wards that come from Egypt that allow absorption of magic to help fuel the protections." Sirius gave them entry with an overly dramatic wave of his arm.

Harry and Hermione looked at each other and began to have a silent conversation between the two of them, slightly moving their head to the side sometimes with a questioning glance.

"If it's not to improper, would you allow us to employ some wards that we came up with?"

Sirius only raised his eyebrow and looked between the two of them with an interested look. "And what, my dear godson, would these wards that you have come up with, do exactly?"

"Whilst we don't doubt the protective and dark nature of the Egyptian wards considering their history with extremely powerful necromancers that wield dark magic and protecting their treasure along with their knowledge, we just don't want to destroy the house we are currently in and have it topple on top of us is all," Hermione answered with a small pout.

"What they're saying is true Sirius. I'm a part of the study group and Neville has been teaching some of them to me and Sue. Isn't it better to be safer than have half the neighbourhood go bye bye?" Ginny added in her two knuts to help convince him.

Sirius thought about it with a mock serious face for a few more seconds before giving his assent for the placing of these mysterious wards.

Both Sirius and Ginny watched in silence as the other two began to make their way throughout the room, arms spread wide with the occasional burst of light coming from their palms and disappearing into the walls.

With each flash of light, the walls of the room began to almost ripple in the air, as if the walls themselves had a slight look of waves to them. As the walls began to shift in image, so too did the presence of the warp begin to increase with only Ginny that felt the air began to thicken with power out of the three observers.

"So you never really explained what these so called _runes_ of yours that you're placing pretty much everywhere, even the ceiling for merlins sake, actually do. Care to share with the rest of the class Harry?" Sirius asked with a raised eyebrow as he looked upwards and around.

"How to put this so you'd understand it? Well they're the generic ones. Protection, absorption and strengthening. Think of them like as if both Dumbledore and Voldemort decided to come together and try to break them. Their magical power would be considered like an infant compared to these." Sirius cocked his other eyebrow in confusion at his response and by the strangeness of it.

' _Both Dumbledore and Voldemort? I'm just going to nod my head and go along with it.'_ Sirius looked at his fellow observers but got shrugs in return.

By the time he finished his thoughts, both duellists had reached their spot and were just standing there, looking at him as if they were awaiting his signal.

"So are you both re- _BANG!_ " Before he could even finish his sentence Harry and Hermione had begun to launch their first spell at each other with both deadly precision and reckless abandon.

With a quick snap of a bludgeoning curse, the two spells sped towards each other that was aimed at the others head but met with an absorbing splash from the walls that protected the walls behind them.

" _Incarcerous! Expulso! Confringo!"_ Metal chains sprang forth from Harry's wand, speeding towards his opponent, followed by dual explosions that were aimed towards the sides of Hermione as if trying to trap her.

" _Protego!_ Come now Harry, surely you cannot expect me to fall for such a trap? _Defodio!_ Chains? My, my dear Harry, I never knew you were into such... _interesting_ …things." Hermione dodged with a sway of her hips and returned fire with a gouging curse, slowly bringing up the heat towards him.

Harry didn't respond with words but returned fire with an equal amount of increasing fire. _"_ **Trevnahz** **Tria** _!"_ A trio of roaring fire birds spat forth that caused the observers to take a step back from the force of the flames.

As she saw the flames sped towards her, Hermione began to gather warp energy in the palm of her hand with a small amount of excitement beginning to grow within her. "Heating things up are we dear brother?" With a small shout of exertion, she thrust both her palm and wand out towards the flames and battered them away as if they were nothing.

With the battering of the flames away from Hermione, neither group noticed Harry's disappearance from view as he had used the cover of the flames to turn invisible, quickly running behind the flames and positioning himself behind his opponent.

A small triumphant smirk made its way onto her face as Hermione quickly tried to find her opponent to respond in kind with her own spell fire but froze up slightly as she didn't hear or feel, but sensed Harry behind her and found herself launched across the room with a searing pain on her back, as if someone had taken a red hot poker and stabbed her with it.

As Hermione tumbled very ungracefully on the opposite side of the room, Harry began to cast more spells, each one a different spell that was beginning to lean away from the 'light' side of magic.

"If this is what we can expect from your position of champion, then you might as well quit before you break a nail, my sweet sister!" The only response Harry got with a small snarl and a bright flash from a whip made of pure energy that disintegrated the spells coming towards her.

As the lash of power disintegrated Harry's barrage of spells, so too did it blow back the audience into the wall behind them, causing them a small amount of harm due to the force of such a blast.

Before anyone bar Harry could realise, Hermione had gotten up and covered the distance of the duel hall with her _Blissgiver_ in hand, almost coming down and penetrating him straight through but quickly stopped that plan with a quick swipe of his own _Deathscreamer_.

"Okay then, first off ow. Second, is Harry purposefully trying to annoy her or?" Tonks quipped dusted herself off as the sound of screeching metal clanging together reached their ears.

"Well I will say this; I certainly wouldn't want to come in between them," Ginny said with slight trepidation as she continued to watch on, beginning to become both awed and scared by the power of the two champions.

With every clash and resulting sparks of the two blades crashing upon each other, their respective wielders parried and riposted after each consecutive strike with neither quite gaining the advantage over the other.

"Come come, dear Harry, if _this_ is the best that _you_ offer as champion, well then you really should just stick to the books and let people with proper skills be at the front." Hermione kept taunting him, knowing that eventually it would get under his skin just like he had with her.

"You really think you'll be able to get under my skin don't you? Not even your attempts at gaining entrance to my bedroom has had any successes, why do you think this will work?" Sirius' eyes lit up in amusement and glee at finally finding something he could tease his godson with.

"And here I was thinking your head was too far into your toying with things to recognise such a thing." After parrying Harry's blade to the side, Hermione gracefully leapt back to the other side of the room.

As Hermione drew a deep breath in, Harry saw what she going to do and quickly grounded himself and prepared. _'Oooh this is gonna hurt.'_

" **SSSSSCCCCCRRRREEEECCCCCCHHHHH!"** A powerful, warp filled barrage of what could only be described as a combination of nails down a chalkboard and metal grinding against itself burst forth from Hermione's inhumanly wide mouth and towards her intended target.

Despite his firm grounding and stance, the incredibly powerful noise forced him back a few inches and all he could do in response was to grit his teeth and force himself to bear the brunt of the eardrum splitting sound.

Following straight after the barrage of noise Hermione ran, not stopping until she came within arm's reach of her opponent with warp blade in hand.

After dodging a vicious thrust towards her midsection by a rapidly recovering Harry, Hermione feinted to her opponents left before delivering her own thrust at Harry's wielding shoulder.

To the observer's horror, as both duellists dodged in an intricate manner, the two delivered a painful looking penetrating stab to each other's shoulders, clearly designed to incapacitate their ability to wield their blades.

"Ugh!" "Dammit!"

Before the pain from being stabbed in the shoulder fully entered their minds, both Harry and Hermione brought their good arms the bare and became locked in a power struggle as the two champions began to channel as much power before either of them backed down.

As their palms began to glow in an unearthly manner, the air around them began to ripple and gain an oppressive feeling to it, leaving the observers feeling as if the weight of an anvil had been driven upon their shoulders.

As the two duellists increasingly became locked in their power struggle, the observers noticed that as the air rippled around them, the residual power had resulted in strange depictions or illusions in the air around them.

The air around Harry had begun to depict faces of a cackling nature, teasing and taunting with an endless tirade of words that spewed forth without end, with one finishing and another picking up where the one before left off.

But the air around Hermione began to show something completely different. The air around her began to shimmer and rippled, slowly creating two horns from atop of a slowly shinning golden colour hair that covered her normal brown, with an air that increasingly became similar to the aura of a veela.

After a few minutes, Ginny noticed that the runes on the walls slowly but surely began to shine with a dull glow, but beginning to climb in brightness as the duellist's power struggle continued.

"Uhh, guys? I think it's time to stop because the runes on the walls? They're starting to glow and if Neville has told me anything then it's those types of runes shouldn't begin to glow or else something bad will happen. Also, you both are kinda injured and bleeding." Ginny's voice carried over to where the two duellists barely heard her, their one train of thought was to make the other back down.

As the observing group started to get nervous at their entertainment not stopping, the oppressive air within the room began to die down slowly, almost at an agonising pace for the audience as they did not know whether or not the two duellists would start up again or continue their cool down.

After a few minutes of tenseness and cooling down, the air cleared up and the power within it dissipated, leaving a room with brightly glowing runes on each wall.

"Well then. Should I really thank you both for giving my duelling room a bit of a makeover? Personally, I'm not exactly partial to the melted walls look and various sizes of scorch marks and enough chains to make a dominatrix blush." Sirius said with a bark of laughter and a whistle as he looked around the room.

"This is nothing Sirius, just a bit of a friendly contest between us. Should we ever go full out, then you can start running if you so desire." Hermione said with a cheerful smile as both she and Harry waved their hands across their wounded shoulders, wounds seemingly disappearing before their very eyes.

"And that you did just then? The whole hand wavy and poof there goes my serious injury?" The face Tonks gave clearly showed the disbelief of the whole situation.

"That my dear, is a simple thing when you have enough power for it. Come on then Sirius, shall we retire upstairs and hope that the house doesn't fall down?" Both Harry and Sirius let out a laugh as the group ascended the stairs, leaving behind a duelling room with slightly melted walls and runes that continued to glow bright with restrained power.

* * *

 _ **Scene break**_

* * *

For several weeks now she had been here, aggressively researching throughout the library, with Sirius' permission, of course, to look through the darker selection of books but nonetheless still could not find a result that satisfied her thirst for answers.

"Oh come on there has to be something in these bloody dusty old pages about it somewhere. The Blacks were supposedly some of the best keepers of dark magic and knowledge and yet somehow couldn't even keep a record of magical abilities and their full extent?" Tonks' fervent whisper broke the silence of the library as she stubbornly continued on with her mission.

The purpose as to why she had been aggressively researching? Because of that damned Potter boy that's why! Him and his constant referring to her as changling and not even once giving a hint or reason as to why he kept on calling her that!

"There has to be something in here somewhere. I'm just thankful I have some Black blood in me so I can handle some of the more dangerous books." Tonks grabbed the next book along in the row on the dreaded third shelf of the library.

As she continued to look through the pages of the book in front of her, just as she was about to throw the book at the wall, a voice startled her out of her frustration that came from outside the library, just outside the door even.

"What are you doing up this late Granger? One would think that a girl your age would still be in bed."

' _Hang on that's Moody. Why is he up at this hour and why is Hermione up as well?'_ Tonks slowly crept towards the door, making sure that this time she didn't reveal herself by tripping over anything.

"And what does me being up this late have anything to concern you about Moody?" Tonks swore she could hear a small growl coming from Moody as Hermione replied.

"It's my business to make sure that no one goes looking for books of a dark nature and since you seem to be skulking around in the middle of the night, one might think you'd be up to something suspicious eh lass?"

Tonks waited with bated breath to hear what Hermione might say in response to the aurors accusation and she wasn't disappointed when she heard it.

"Oh, I see it now. Do you miss it Mad Eye? Do you miss the feeling of apprehending someone in the midst of something dark? The _thrill_ of taking down a dark wizard?" Even Tonks raised an eyebrow at hearing Hermione's words and wondered what the hell was she talking about.

"What are you on about girl?" Moody all but growled out as Hermione slowly started to walk towards him with a ballerina's step.

"I mean your somewhat crusade against dark wizards is pretty much legendary, there must be a reason for such an action. Maybe you felt a thrill whenever you duelled a dark wizard? A certain, _pleasure_ , when your curse struck them."

When Moody didn't respond, Tonks pressed her ear to the door even harder to try to listen to Hermione's whispering.

"I can tell the way you look at Snape, you so desperately want to take your wand and let loose with an _**excess**_ of curses that bring that _pleasure_ of taking down the filth of a dark wizard. I can just feel it radiating from you that you want to cause him pain Moody." As she finished, Moody felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up as he felt Hermione pass behind him.

Keeping as quiet as she could, Tonks slowly opened the library door and began to creep out but stopped still when she looked over towards Hermione and Moody and saw that in the legendary aurors eyes, were stark horror and disgust.

"G-get the hell out of my way Granger, and don't you let me catch you out here again or I _will_ show you why in merlins name I have such a legend." With a small growl at the girl behind him, Moody stalked his way back down the stairs towards the lounge where he immediately flooed out of the house.

A small, girlish giggle escaped Hermione's mouth as she watched the normally unwavering auror make a hasty retreat out of the house and away from the machinations of the pleasure princes champion.

"Don't be shy Tonksie, come out of the shadows and let me see you." Tonks froze in her place and tried to get away from the creepy scene that just happened but nervously sighed and turned towards the younger girl but stopped and gaped at the clothing she wore.

The right chest side of her electric pink sleepwear was completely open and revealed the nakedness to any and all that wanted to see with small additions of jewellery adorning her right breast.

Without realising, Hermione had walked right up into her comfort zone and began to stare at her with those now frightening swirling pink eyes. "You would do _so well_ if you were with me my sweet Tonks, with your abilities to change your sizes you'd be near the top of favourites. But then Harry would get very annoyed at me and then the game would get very messy from the on." With a small pat on her head, Hermione left Tonks she stood frozen and sauntered back to her room.

With a small start, Tonks finally began to move and retreat back to her own room in the house that Sirius had let her borrow. _'What in the hell was that and what the HELL is going on?!'_ These thoughts kept swirling around in her mind she crept into her bed.

' _Maybe it'd be best to ask Harry for that one, Hermione did say something about him.'_ A voice that sounded very much like hers argued for logic against what had happened.

' _That may be the best idea, cheers for that brain.'_ After that very small logic argument Tonks fell asleep, thankfully not dreaming of half-naked witches but strangely enough of mirrors and faces that she did not know staring back at her.

" _ **Another piece on the board, another piece for my champion and the game continues."**_ Tzeentch laughed as the power of corruption slowly pierced the changlings dreams, slowly doing their work on the unsuspecting mind and changing her loyalties to Tzeentch!

* * *

 _ **With the duel between Harry and Hermione ending the way it did, will the increasing power of the two champions hinder the plans of the dark gods for the material world? Will the display cause concern for Neville and Nurgle should they be outnumbered? Will Moody do anything in retaliation for what Hermione said to him? Will he warn Dumbledore about the accusations? Find out next time on The Affliction!**_

 _ **AN2: Yes, you don't have to tell me that my writing duel skills suck majorly. I just find writing them to be difficult to be honest.**_

 **Give it a good read, possibly even give a review as they are always welcome and it tells me if you're liking the story and you have yourself a very good day. :)**


	21. Chapter 19 - Bittersweet but for whom?

_**AN: Yes I am back writing and updating the story because of some shit that happened recently and on top of that my computer decided to say bye bye and almost die on me but I recovered the story files so I hopefully I will keep on keepin on and** **do remember that this story is AU so different stuff can happen! Do please keep that in mind.**_

 **Guest review: Yes, yes it was a reference to that.**

* * *

 **Chapter 19 – Bittersweet, but for whom?**

' _What the hell did I just dream about?'_ Tonks' first thoughts of the day kept buzzing around her mind, slowly conjuring up the rapidly fading images of the dreams but keeping only the most important ones fresh and detailed.

"Great half-machine half-beast things surrounded by innumerable people, beasts, and creatures that can only come from hell bearing down on a castle that looks like I should know it but I don't. You really shouldn't have a drink before bedtime Tonksie."

"But should I ever find whoever cast some sort of curse that gives nightmares combined with hallucinations on me, I am going to end them," grumbled Tonks as she began her daily routine of getting ready for the morning before she gave a glance to the clock on the wall and realised that she had slept way into the afternoon.

"Dammit all to hell, I knew I should've set an alarm." Tonks continued to grumble about her singular woes before trudging out of her room and down the hallway before slowing down and eventually stopping as she began to hear slightly raised voices, not from downstairs in the kitchen, but in one of the rooms that was close to the library.

As she got closer to the raised voices, she could begin to make out and recognize the raised voices belonging to both Harry and Remus. But as she strained her ears to try to hear what they were arguing about, the tone of Harry's voice became lower in pitch, as if something was underneath his voice and deepening it.

Before she could get any closer, Remus tore open the door and stormed down the stairs, barely missing her but not noticing her either, _'So glad I kept to the walls otherwise I would've become a pancake by the way he stormed out of there.'_

As she turned around to follow Remus down the stairs, Tonk stopped for a moment before turning back and walked into the room where she knew Harry had had his argument with Remus.

"Umm Harry? Can I ask what the hell that was about? Because Remus had a look of absolute fury on his face when he almost barged into me coming out of here."

Harry just stood there without speaking, almost seeming like he was looking for the right words to use but in reality, he was just standing there with a part of his mind miles away, thinking his thoughts before he turned slightly towards her with a regarding eye.

"Oh, that? That was simply an of different opinions dear Tonks. It seemed that Remus and I have a very different opinion on our lifestyles and he did not exactly like what I had to say about such things." At her confused raised eyebrow, Harry decided to indulge her a little bit more.

"It seems that Remus, like so many before him, allowed the wolf inside him to dictate which powerful figure to follow with a single track mind and did not question their orders whatsoever." Tonks' confusion only increased as Harry's eyes glazed over slightly, as if remembering a memory of the past but quickly snapped out of as silence descended on the two of them.

' _Okay how am I gonna do this? Do I just blurt it out or do I say it in a more'_ "Why are you still in school?" _'Thanks a lot, mouth.'_ As Tonks was berating her mouth for being too quick, she had to get Harry to repeat his question.

"What do you mean by that dear Tonks?" Unbeknownst to her, the door of the room began to slowly shut, with a few minuscule runes burnt into the wood.

"Well, what I mean is that you're pretty much top of your year, you are scarily powerful by your demonstrations from the tournament and just by the way you speak it's like you know a hell of a lot more than you show." Nervousness began to creep into her voice as the only response to her questioning was just the staring of his ice blue eyes.

After a few dragging seconds of silence that made her almost fidget, Harry's initial response made her strain her hearing just a tad to hear it clearly. "You want to know why I stay? You really want to know changeling?" Seeing her nod ever so slightly in anticipation, he answered her question.

"The reason or reasons really of why I stay is quite simple; a leader needs followers, and a god needs worshipers." At hearing his answer, Tonks shook her head in confusion at the whole worshiping bit. "What do you mean a god needs worshipers? It isn't like you fancy yourself a god, Harry. Harry?"

" _ **I remember when millennia upon millennia ago when I was naught but a cloud of energy, moving and shifting on the whims of mortals. When my brothers and I became sentient and begun to play the opening moves of our great game. I remember the great sundering of the Old Ones gates and the glorious invasions in the aftermath."**_ Both mortal occupants of the room didn't realize or even notice that the walls around them began to melt and shift into something else, something not of the material plane.

" _ **Our fun increased further when our newly born sister joined us and entered the game and with the arrival of the so-called Anathema, you'd think we would've slowed down our games but we only shifted into the shadows, playing with the minds of his sons and turned them on each other. Billions or even trillions of souls were ours to play with whenever we gained control of their governor."**_ Instead of the normal room that they had occupied back in Grimmauld place, when she looked around, Tonks almost gasped in shock as the normal walls were now replaced with shelves upon shelves upon shelves of books, towering all around them and even up into the air.

" _ **Even when our blockheaded brother decided to be damned jealous and throw me off my rightful place at the top of the food chain, our influence in the material worlds still grew. Until those blasted Asur decided to create that portal of theirs to reduce it, we were on our way to domination! Don't you see changeling!? We were once at the top of the food chain with our magic and might with no one to stop us! We even had our own champion, poised to bring about the destruction of the enemies of chaos!"**_ Whoever, or rather whatever, Tonks had been talking to before in that small room had now disappeared, and now in their place was… _something_.

" _ **We were even winning against you mortals when that fortress world was destroyed! But then on the cusp of victory, we were denied, and we were reduced to this. You ask me if I fancy myself a god changeling? I...AM…A...GOD!"**_ Even whilst staring at him, Tonks could almost see a form underneath Harry's own form, writhing like a group of snakes slithering about and faces continuously speaking then stopping.

"But why? Why take over an innocent young boy like Harry? He is nothing to you." Despite her inner feelings about the situation, she still couldn't understand why this god had chosen the young man she had become friends with.

" _ **He is a chosen of fate and as the Architect of Fate, he is perfect for me. He knows exactly what his role is and in the future. Now leave me changeling, I have fates to spin and you have your own mortal things to do."**_ Quicker than a blink of an eye, Tonks found herself back in the material world, exactly where she and Harry were talking.

"He's right you know, I know exactly what I was doing when I first accepted him when I was a young boy and I know exactly what my role is in the future. I am the Champion of Tzeentch, the vessel to the Architect of Fate and leader of my faction Tonks, just as Hermione and Neville are the leaders of their factions. But I need followers Tonks, allies who I can count on to help me when the time comes. Will you join me?" The thoughts in her head were swirling around as she tried to comprehend what she had just witnessed and heard.

' _Okay first off my friend is the so-called vessel of an evil god bent on domination and if what it was talking about was truthful, there are two more out there with Hermione and Neville involved also. In addition to that, this evil god chose him for a specific reason but Harry knows that and fully accepts it. And now, he fully admits to wanting followers and worshipers to said evil god and wants me to help in whatever he seems to be preparing for. Merlin preserve me.'_ With both her head and heart in agreement, Tonks nodded her head in acceptance in joining her young friends side, despite any and all her previous allegiances with order.

* * *

 _ **Scene break**_

* * *

"Move! Move out of the way you useless curs!" Everyone in front and even around her scrambled as fast as they could to get out of the quickly striding witch, lest they incur her wrath and possibly go insane from it.

For the past several weeks, Bellatrix had been diligently serving and working for her lord and master whilst she had been working on her assigned mission. For the several weeks, she had been given the task of locating and kidnapping a number of muggles, specifically young children within their first several years of life.

As she quietly entered she lords private chambers, she took a brief second to look around the room and noted that several more inner circle members were, including Severus and Lucius, pointedly discussing something with their lord.

"Master, I have returned with what you desire of me. I have each and every one of them under the draught of living death that Snape so lovingly made for us and hidden away exactly where you wanted them." Bellatrix whispered in her constant worshiping tone.

"Thank you Bellatrix, you have been such help these past number of weeks. Now Severus, do you have what I asked for you do retrieve?" The Dark Lords silken voice whispered ever so slightly as the group turned towards the potions master, who they had just realized had a small box with him.

"Indeed I have my lord. I retrieved it from the very place you said it was to be. Though I must confess my confusion my lord, why go through all this effort when we know that _someone_ was the cause of the destruction of such an artifact?" Whilst Snape kept staring directly at Voldemort, he did notice out of the corner of his eye that Lucius had shrunk back in shame and the hiss that came from Bellatrix.

Voldemort hummed in slight amusement at his servant's behavior towards one another and slowly moved towards one of the tomes that he had laid across the main table in the center of the room. "Whilst the destruction of one of my most precious artifacts because of Lucius was a major step back from my return my dear friend, it still hasn't deterred me from delving further into the mysteries of soul and summoning magic. That is why I asked dear Bella here to gather the subjects that I needed for my experiments."

As Voldemort began to explain a few more minor details pertaining to the plan, behind his occlumency shields, Severus began to clamp down onto the nervous and fearful sensations that had begun to creep up in him as he listened to the dark lord's plans. _'Albus_ must _know of this, Voldemort delving even further into the forbidden arts is bad enough but now the dark mark is acting up? Shifting colors in certain places? This isn't normal.'_

* * *

 _ **Scene break**_

* * *

"Come on slowpoke, it's only a few more kilometers until we can sit down have a rest!"

"Easy for you to say! You've been doing this all your life and the complete opposite for me." Jim looked towards his wife who had walked further ahead of him with a slight smile and laughed.

For the past hour and a half, Jim and his wife had been hiking through the forest where Lizzy had always wanted to go but never quite found the time to go what with their jobs getting in the way or life in general.

Ever since the reports about some sasquatch looking creatures had been reported in and near the forests, not a lot of people had been willing to go trekking but Lizzy had always been able to convince her husband to go along with whatever harebrained adventure of hers because he loved her that much.

"Hey Jim? Hurry up and come look at this will ya!" Jim could just hear Lizzy call out from over a small ridge area but when he came up beside her, he looked at what she been pointing towards and crinkled his eyebrows in confusion.

"And what exactly are you wanting me to see Liz? Some weird lines carved into a rock that was probably made by some people that sipped a bit too much from the bottle or maybe even some people who were high as kites." Jim waved his arms around in an exaggerated manner as he walked around the rock.

"Jimmy come on, doesn't this interest you? I mean yeah they were probably made by some druggies but they honestly look like markings made some old Viking tribe or something. You have to admit that would be awesome if we discovered some ancient Viking ruins and we got all the credit for it." The two of them shared a laugh between them as they imagined the tv interviews because of this 'amazing discovery'.

Before too long, the duo began to continue on their trek further on the path, never noticing they were being followed by not one, nor two or even three shadows, but by a herd of them.

"Did you hear that?"

"Nooo, do you hear something? Maybe it's the mysterious sasquatch that somehow moved from America over to England?" Jim snorted at the picture running through his head but slowed down as he looked over at Lizzy's concerned look.

"I swear I heard something though. It's getting late so maybe we should head-JIM!" As her husband was swept up in front of her by a brutishly tall bull, Lizzy turned her head sideways to see a veritable herd of beasts running towards her, each and every one of them bellowing out for something.

 _ **"Humans run in Beastmen land! Become food for herd!"**_ Shocked that the brutish beast actually spoke to her, the last thing Lizzy saw was the sight of her loving husband Jim's head being torn from his body and a very large axe swinging towards hers.

* * *

 **Because Harry and Remus had a bit of an explosive argument between the two of them, will it affect something in the future? Will the result bring in some unwanted attention to Harry? With the recruitment of Tonks, Harry now has his changeling, but how long will it last before someone realizes what she has done? Who else will fall prey to the machinations of Chaos? Find out next time on _The Affliction!_**

 **AN: A bit of a background dump from Tzeentchs p.o.v.**

 **Give it a good read, possibly even give a review as they are always welcome and it tells me if you're liking the story and you have yourself a very good day :)**


	22. Chapter 20 - Cracks in the Wall

_**I want to wish you all very happy holidays, Christmas or whatever you celebrate during this time period and a happy new years time my friends. :)**_

* * *

 **Chapter 19 – The Cracks In the Walls**

 _"WATCH OUT!" BOOM!_

 _"We can't hold out much longer!" "There's too many of them!" "We're gonna get overrun!"_

 _Screams of the dying, living and even the dead rang out as eyes cast wide upon the field and drank in just what was happening; corpses both familiar and foreign with shards of metal or bone sticking out of places that be possible without some sort of interference._

 _BOOM! Another loud boom sounded as titanic monsters raged at each other in a battle of strength and wits as with each death another took its place in the ever continuing circle of death and destruction._

 _"Sir! What do we do? There are too many of them to combat and with the gia-my god, on the hill sir. They're here!" As the person turned towards what seemed to be the middle of the field of corpses, on a raised patch of land bright titans shifted into view but immediately after, darkness covered everything._

With a slight jolt, Harry jerked awake after what he assumed was a weird dream by the fleeting fragments he kept a tight grip on but even then the knowledge of them was slipping away from him.

"What's the count now Neville? Fifteen?"

"Sixteen by the last estimates."

Hermione's lips turned upwards as the latest person walked passed their table in the library not with a glare, but with a small nod of acceptance and understanding, completely contradictory to the number of people who decided it was their life mission to do as much as they could to gain a reaction from the current residents of said table.

"It matters not whether the rest decide to cast off their shackles and embrace the truth. When the time comes and the pleasures of the warp are opened to the masses, we shall we shall take our rightful places upon this world." With Hermione's words ending in a smirk, the duo descended into a comfortable silence, not knowing that the third part of their trio was deep in thought and not exactly listening to them.

Ever since the beginning of their fifth year of Hogwarts, things had seemed too innocently calm for what he and the others had been preparing for. Sure they had a brand new Defense teacher because the first one went missing after a week without a single clue besides a rotting smell in the room but other than, everyone agreed that the new teacher was better.

Even on the Voldemort front things had been quiet. Normally, at least according to the history books, he should've gone out terrorizing the populace and murdered numerous people by now but nothing had been identified as him or his death eaters.

 _'No enemy has been this quiet before, even utilizing in the warp he is doing nothing but gathering his strength, no shadow plays or public displays of terror.'_ Harry banished the lingering thoughts of Voldemort as he picked up his year-long project for ancient runes.

"You still haven't told us what exactly you're planning for that project Harry, I mean what's the big secret? It's not like we can copy it or anything." Neville poked at him with his quill as the only things he could see were a bunch of small runes forming a bigger picture.

"And you won't find out dear brother until the right time comes. This project for me is like whenever you've tried your hand at coming up with a new poison. We all have our little entertainments and this one is mine." With that, he opened up another book on runes and began to write down some more that he had found.

* * *

 _ **Scene break**_

* * *

"He has to be planning something big Albus, the only time he has ever been this quiet before is just before an Azkaban raid or something bigger."

Albus nodded his head in agreement as he kept running through every scenario he could think of then discarding it before thinking of another one but could never quite put a grasp on any potential reason why.

"He can't possibly be trying to reunite his soul pieces and become whole again, Potter destroyed the piece that was in the diary. Has Voldemort ordered anything else? I must know every detail lest we miss something."

"Well there is something else, I haven't brought this up because I was trying to find out if this was an isolated case or if it affecting the other death eaters but the dark mark, it has changed."

"What? That should not be possible. It was to my knowledge that once applied it couldn't be removed or changed. Let me look at it Severus and maybe I can find something about it that can help uncover the reason for this change." As Severus lifted the robes of his left arm, Albus began to wave his wand across Severus' arm, trying to discern whatever changed within the magic of the dark mark.

As the seconds turned to minutes, Severus watched as Albus' eyebrows began to furrow at an increasing pace and depth and begun to worry himself.

As the random sparks shot out of the wand and wrapped around the arm in front of it, they slowly rotated in a clockwise manner around the centre of the mark before speeding up at a certain point before slowing down at a snail's pace.

"Albus what is wrong? Before the change when you scanned it, it only took a few seconds before you made some brilliant deduction and dazzled me with your brilliance at finding out the answer." Albus stopped casting and dropped his wand onto the desk beside him and sighed a deep breath.

"There is nothing I can't recognise about the mark anymore my boy, whatever Voldemort has done, it is permanent and always I can guess is it has something to do with the magiks from within. However, there is _something_ I seem to recognise about it, the feel of the power behind it is something I have experienced before but so far I can only say in _extremely_ small amounts." As the two men breathed deep in reluctant acceptance, all they could do was continue to gaze at the new version of the dark mark. No longer did a snake coil around it, all it was now was the glaring skull.

* * *

 _ **Scene break**_

* * *

Far across the country later in the evening, Derek's plan was sure-fire; knock the door down, set off the gas bombs, rough up the place and then get out. _'Simple enough with the number of people and beasts I've got.'_

As the group of seven beings strolled up to the front door of the building complex, he gave a quick nod to the beastman beside him and stood back to watch as the creature took a couple of steps before breaking out into a run towards the door.

"You have to admit, bringing in a beastman was a pretty smart idea. Less of a hassle for us trying to kick the door down and starting the party." Derek certainly agreed with his friend's opinion as they watched the ungor in front of them smash through the lightly framed door and into the foyer with a loud bray.

The other in the group slowly walked into the building, listening to the confused screams of both the civilian workers and the security demanding they get on the ground.

"This is the last time I'm going to say this to you: get on the ground now or we will have to call the police and respond accordingly." Listening to the lead security guard continue shouting at them became a bore to Derek and with a clearly showed nod towards the beast next to him, everyone silently watched before screaming in terror as the ungor, despite being shot by the guards, calmly grabbed the mans neck and proceeded to tear into his chest and rip his head off in a _very_ gruesome manner.

As the screaming of the poor people continued to ring out throughout the building, the remaining people were gathered up in small groups of three and placed at spots where the windows were clearly seen.

"Aaaand here comes the police and maybe a news team to showcase this. Let's show them some despair shall we?" With the police beginning to surround the building entrance and the news team set up and rolling, Derek and the remaining five members of the group, since the ungor _did_ succumb to his wounds, stood behind the crying and screaming workers.

Amidst the chaos of the now live broadcasted hostage situation, behind all the spectacle and hubbub, stood several shadowed figures in a dark alleyway, silently watching as if they were waiting for something to happen or even just watching in general.

Not caring about being noticed by the police, one of the figures took a spray paint can out of the bag slung across his shoulders and turned towards the wall, before proceeding to spray a green tri-circle figure with dark patches in the middle.

As if triggered by the wall-tagging, Derek nodded to his friends and as one, the members of the small group lit the fuses of the gas bombs that each one held with the small group of civilians crying as despair overcame them all.

"FOR THE PLAGUE LORD NURGLE!" With each consecutive gas explosion, each member grinned as they fulfilled their wish to serve Nurgle and happiness overcame them as just as the gas overcame them, they felt their skin ripple as their skin rotted away and gave way to the disease that lay underneath.

Back in the darkened alley, the group watched as the police began to choke as the gas rolled out onto the street and began to cover the group of police and news people, all the while the cameras were still rolling as it showed the damage and chaos that had just happened.

"For Grandfather Nurgle."

* * *

 _ **Scene break**_

* * *

"Come on don't you understand we have to get out of here! There is _something_ coming around that corner and we cannot stop it!" The hospital patient cried out to anyone that would even listen to her but to her frustration and fear, _no one_ would even give her a second of their time as they continued to walk past her room, joking and laughing as they went on their way.

Didn't they realise that the _thing_ that was coming would kill them all if it so desired? That it would gladly make them all its slaves and do whatever they do to them in their sick fantasies or desires.

"Please listen to me, please please oh please someone listen to me. Why won't _someone_ listen to me? I'm trying to save all of these people but no one will even listen to crazy little me will they? It's not my fault he died, all I wanted was to stop him but then this light came out of my hand and he burned up."

Before she was admitted, Katherine was a normal school girl who had a normal life before all of the abuse started to happen and on the day that it happened, all she could remember was coming home, blacking out and then waking up in a mental institute being labelled a murderer and a sadist because of it.

Ever since that day, sometimes she would sometimes see something out of the corner of her eye that looked like a freakishly pale woman with claws or even sometimes a scorpion looking monster straight out of something from _H.P_ _Lovecraft_ or something.

As the door to her room ( _cell more like it_ ) opened and revealed one of the more friendlier female staff members, and slowly walked towards her with a slight gleam in her eyes.

"Katherine you know you must really quieten down a bit, you'll disturb all of the other patients on the ward and unfortunately you might find yourself in a spot of trouble if you don't." Thoughts of being in trouble didn't enter her mind with all of the things that she had been seeing.

"I don't care about being in trouble! Can't you see that there is something coming that is going to tear us to pieces!" Katherine's ranting had become rather loud now and almost to the point of screeching.

"Stop that this instant now Katherine, I would've welcomed to do this if you were willing but now it seems that I have to do this without your permission."

"Without my permission? What are talking-hmppf!" Whatever Katherine was going to say next was cut off as the staff member grabbed her by her head and placed a searing kiss on her lips.

As the woman slowly kissed her, Katherine never noticed the staff member touching her forehead in an almost sensual manner in small spirals with jagged edges before pulling away and moving towards her left ear.

"You really should learn some tact, Katherine, otherwise you won't realise the monster is already here." As her eyes widened in a dramatic fashion, Katherine opened her mouth ready to scream bloody murder but was suddenly paralyzed by some force.

"This would've been easier for you if you hadn't struggled so much my girl." The staff member slowly began to speak under her breath in a rapid manner, slowly reaching out to the symbol she drew in blood on Katherine's head and caressed it before it lit up with a shine.

With a wave of her hand towards the door, no one else in the hospital knew or would ever realise what had now been summoned and unleashed into this realm and dear poor Katherine would never know either, for her soul had now been delivered into the arms of the Prince of Pleasure and her shell had been possessed by the very monster she had seen.

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 _ **What oh what is the dark lord planning indeed with the gathering of his soul jars? What is Harry planning/building that requires the usage of runes? How many more will see the truth and break their chains before they become lost to ignorance? Find out next time on The Affliction!**_

 **Give it a good read, possibly even give a review as they are always welcome and it tells me if you're liking the story and you have yourself a very good day :)**


	23. Chapter 21 - The Long Game

_**Imagine this: a world just like ours but the human race, all 7 billions of us, is replaced by zombies. Would they have a schooling system in place? Maybe in high school, they have a cooking class and maybe its called "So you want to eat a brain Class 101". Head AU's are so fun.**_

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 **Chapter 20 – The Long Game**

Anger.

Irritation.

Annoyance.

None of those words could exactly describe what he was feeling as he listened to the people around him spew and spout their platitudes, their excuses and even accusations against both him in a subtle way and not to so subtle way to the others across the table from them.

This whole mess, this ENTIRE mess could be traced back to a specific point about a year and a half ago. All over the country, some new types of gangs had sprouted out of..somewhere..and didn't operate in the normal sense that a gang did; these gangs took in the dregs of society and didn't seem to stop.

Not only them, no no, but whenever the subject came up, the head of the health department kept saying that mental patients are going extra crazy because they see even more crazy stuff and warning the staff about the horrors of the future.

But then you know what? It gets even better because then the attacks happened. Over the course of several months, reports start coming in about people going crazy within shopping centres, outside of police stations and even in hospitals. They were the worst ones because, in the aftermath, entire wards became sick with some sort of sickness that the eggheads haven't figured out yet.

'Every single meeting with these people start off like this; get the updates on what is happening and then the shouting begins, christ it's times like these that make me regret taking this job.' Every single vocal tone just increased a headache within his head as he finally gave up and told them all to shut up.

"Now can we please calm down a bit and act like adults here? We all know what is happening and the effects it is having on the populace of this great nation. Repeatedly I have been asked by the crown to figure out a solution for these happenings and what has been achieved? A few arrests then release due to insufficient evidence and NOTHING ELSE!" Everyone at the table didn't expect the normally calm Prime Minister to shout as he was usually quite calm.

"The majority of you can't help us in this situation because it is the complete opposite of normalcy. No matter how many times we meet, someone thinks up a suggestion but it doesn't exactly work out does it? I mean how can we honestly compete with terrorist attacks, people with severe disabilities helping those terrorists and unknown diseases affecting our hospitals? I mean it's not like we're the government are we?" Everyone in the room could clearly understand the sarcasm that came from their leader's mouth.

After the Prime Minister lashed out with his sarcastic tongue for a few more minutes, he opened the floor to anyone who could come up with even a slight plan to deal with the attacks or even something to help stem the tide of them.

Every soul in the room lowered their heads slightly in a sort of concentration as if by some force they would all link their minds together to come up with a solution but sadly none came, they couldn't think of a single way to combat the wave of attacks, only strategies of forwarning the populace of what to look for from behaviours.

Before long, one of the aides in a far corner of the room raised his voice to give his opinion as for the silence had become too long drawn out. "Sir, what if it had something to do with some religious cult nuts?"

Almost immediately, the surrounding people laughed at the suggestion that it could possibly even be something religious when the evidence clearly pointed towards gang affiliated attacks and terrorists, not religious nuts. After the laughing died done, everyone was shocked at the Prime Minister as he bade the aide to continue their line of thought, not comprehending that he was listening to it.

"If we look at the evidence, there are signs that there is a religious presence in the attacks. There were some gang members taken in and some of them were overheard laughing hysterically about a dark god or gods as if they were somehow real. I think that is the biggest indicator." Some of the members of the cabinet meeting were looking impressed as if they didn't expect a simple aide to think of that.

"Well despite what mister smart ass thinks about the hokey religious crap, we can't exactly burn them for heresy now, can we? We are a civilized country after all. I will say again as I have always said since we gan this: bring out of the big guns in force and shoot every single one of these terrorists to prove a point!" The Home Secretary's shouting made everyone jump in their chairs as they listened to his ravings.

"And what would this amazing point be, mister secretary?"

"The point would be that if these hokey pokey religious gangster nutjobs wish to terrorize this great nation, then they should be willings to pay the absolute penalty for their crimes. They should be willing to foot the bill when it comes to casualties and take the role our citizens take when these attacks happen!"

None one could utter a word as they took in what the home secretary was saying; could they really agree with his words and support such a venture?

Before anyone could voice their support or opposition towards the option, they were once again shocked out of their seats by the Prime Minister shouting, not at them, but at one of the upper windows. "Someone get that bloody owl away from this building! That thing has been outside that window for the past week, looking in here with its freaky blue eyes, it freaks me out so I've had enough!"

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 _ **Scene break**_

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"We finally have one this time? No doubts or worries that something might happen again? Please let this be true and god willing they spill something because it's getting ridiculous how every single one we have arrested has gone free for some bullshit reason or another." The senior officer in charge of the most recent investigation in their area gave a large sigh as they silently watched the prisoner inside the room before them.

How many times had they had to release one of these cretins before? Because of insufficient evidence to support their arrest? Or some other crap reason that some higher up politician decided to make up on the stop or them escaping custody because of ambushes? But not today, today they finally had one of these little gang cultists that had been sprouting up all across the country lately.

As the two officers entered the small room, they idly noticed with slightly raised eyebrows that the perpetrator didn't react or even blink in their direction. Not even to say boo to them or plead with them that they have the wrong person or deny their guilt and it put them on edge.

"Now, Miss Perkins, seeing as you are not currently blabbing out in tears or denying that you are a criminal, then I think we can all agree that you did what we have accused you of, correct?" The aforementioned girl in front them nodded her head slightly as she began to stare at them, directly at either one of them then turning to the other.

"The question we are trying to figure out here girl, is why in gods name did you attack that poor man? You have no prior history with him and yet you specifically went up to him and savagely attacked him with several knives, potentially killing the man, then using his blood to scribble markings on him? Why!" As the detective shouted the last word at her, Nicole gave him an ever so slight smile, as if taunting the poor man,

The younger one of the officer duo sat silently as he stared at the smiling girl in front of him, trying to piece out what made her attack the man earlier on this morning with a potential fatality. But with each theory that he constructed, it was quickly deconstructed as the motives didn't fit properly unless...it had a very nefarious motive.

With each second half listening to the rantings of his superior officer, the pieces of the puzzle of Miss Perkins slowly came together, showing a very disturbing mental picture and so with a small gesture of calm, he slowly and calmly took over the questioning.

"Now Nicole, I'm going to ask you something and I want you to be completely honest with me okay? Did you attack the man because you are into satanism or voodoo?" The two officers were waiting for the girl's answer and showed a lot of interest when she actually answered.

"Officer Dale, I can with complete honesty and certainty that I am not apart of some satanic cult or voodoo worshipers. Worshipping a goat-headed creature that supposedly can dish out curses or a man in the sky that can grant miracles? Not my cup of tea as one could say."

The two men were dumbfounded as that had not been the answer they had been expecting from her. They had expected something along the lines of something for the glory of satan or some pagan belief for a savage attack from her.

"No, what I believe is something that is really only properly explained in games such as chess. Would you care to hear about it?" Nicole could tell she had the two hooked as she knew that they had been dying to gain some insight into what motives she and countless others had.

Before she could open her mouth with an answer, the door to the room quickly opened in a blind panic with a rookie officer quickly whispered something into the detective's ear. As she silently sat there waiting, the detective whispered a harsh curse word and explained that the two officers had to leave, a more important issue had come up.

For a whole five full minutes Nicole became silent, not moving or speaking, only breathing in and out, completely aware of the video camera in the top corner watching her and the numerous amount of police officers behind the camera, just waiting for her answer.

Neither group moved or spoke as one waited for the other to speak and the other wanted to draw things out before enacting the plan set before her. To the horror and shock of the officers behind the security cameras, Nicole looked up and stared directly at the camera, almost as if she staring directly at them. "Would you like to know what I believe in? I believe in the long game."

None of the officers in the room viewing the video could think of a possibility of what the young woman was talking about. Long Game? Belief in such a thing? Either she was really crazy or something else was going on upstairs in her mind that shouldn't be happening.

"But go ahead, I will gladly confess to my crimes if you want me to, escort me into the prison system where I can wreak havoc and let slip the dogs of war so to speak. I shall be waiting here for you to return." With that final word, the young woman that everyone in the building had hoped to gain a glimpse of something from was either majorly freaked out by her words or concerned about what she might be if they did put her in a public prison cell.

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 _ **Give it a good read, possibly even give a review as they are always welcome and it tells me if you're liking the story and you have yourself a very good day :)**_


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